US teacher awarded $575k after being fired for not using student’s trans pronouns

A teacher in the US has received $575,000 in damages and legal fees after being wrongfully dismissed for refusing to talk about a gender-confused student using male pronouns.

Former French teacher Peter Vlaming had used the girl’s ‘preferred name’ rather than male pronouns, but the school insisted he use them despite his conscience.

Following a court ruling last December, Vlaming has now settled the case and West Point School Board has overhauled its policies to respect free speech and parental rights.

Principles and beliefs

The former teacher is a member of the Anglican Church in North America, and believes that “sex is fixed in each person and cannot be changed, regardless of our feelings or desires”.

His legal papers explained that: “Mr Vlaming’s conscience and religious practice prohibits him from intentionally lying, and he sincerely believes that referring to a female as a male by using an objectively male pronoun is telling a lie.”

In a phone call with the child’s parents, Vlaming was told he “should leave his principles and beliefs out of this”. In addition, the school told him that: “personal religious beliefs end at the school door”.

Conscience

Vlaming said: “I was wrongfully fired from my teaching job because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who mandated that teachers ascribe to only one perspective on gender identity — their preferred view”.

“I loved teaching French and gracefully tried to accommodate every student in my class, but I couldn’t say something that directly violated my conscience.”

He said he hopes his victory helps “protect every other teacher and professor’s fundamental First Amendment rights.”

‘Respect freedoms’

Tyson Langhofer, Senior Counsel at religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom, which supported the case, said: “Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say.”

He stated that Vlaming “couldn’t in good conscience speak messages that he knew were untrue, and no school board or government official can punish someone for that reason”.

Langhofer concluded: “We’re pleased to favourably settle this case on behalf of Peter and hope other government and school officials will take note of the high cost involved in failing to respect an American’s constitutionally protected freedoms.”