In a groundbreaking decision, Virginia’s highest court resuscitated the legal battle of a French teacher fired for refusing, on religious grounds, to employ a transgender student’s chosen pronouns. The court’s unanimous ruling affirmed Peter Vlaming’s pursuit of claims that the West Point school board violated his constitutional rights, breathing fresh air into free speech, free exercise, and due process arguments.
Vlaming, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, asserted that his religious and philosophical convictions prevented him from using male pronouns for a transgender male student. Instead, he opted to address the student by the preferred name, steering clear of pronouns altogether. The incident that led to his dismissal occurred in 2018 when he unintentionally referred to the student as “her” during a class exercise and persisted in not adopting male pronouns.
The Virginia Supreme Court emphasized the sensitivity of gender identity as a contentious issue, asserting that individuals’ beliefs on the matter are central to constitutional protections on speech and religious exercise. Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, writing for the court, argued against compelling educators’ speech or silence on such divisive topics, recognizing the potential chilling effect on classrooms amidst passionate political and social debates.
The school district’s response to the court’s decision remains unknown at this time.
Vlaming’s case is part of a larger trend influenced by evolving state and school policies on pronoun use, contributing to a broader discourse on religious accommodations in the workplace. While some school districts mandate staff to use students’ preferred pronouns, several Republican-led states have prohibited such policies.
This legal landscape witnessed varied outcomes in different jurisdictions. In 2021, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived claims against an Ohio state university for disciplining a professor who refused to use a student’s preferred pronouns. Conversely, the 7th Circuit ruled that an Indiana high school did not violate federal anti-discrimination laws when a music teacher resigned after refusing to use transgender students’ preferred names.
The Vlaming case, with its nuanced intersection of religious freedom and gender identity, underscores the ongoing struggle to strike a balance between individual rights and evolving social norms. As the legal saga unfolds, it continues to contribute to the national conversation on pronoun use policies and religious liberties in educational institutions.
Virginia Supreme Court Justices Thomas Mann, S. Bernard Goodwyn, and Cleo Powell partially dissented, expressing reservations about the broad interpretation of constitutional rights, particularly in the realms of free speech and due process.
The legal battle, titled Vlaming v. West Point School Board, promises to remain a focal point in the ongoing debate over the intersection of personal beliefs, freedom of expression, and evolving societal expectations in educational settings.
