A Virginia school district has just fired a teacher for refusing to use a transgender high school student’s "preferred pronouns."
While perhaps still not quite as bizarre as the middle school teacher who was recently threatened with removal for refusing to watch a little girl change clothes in the boys’ locker room (still grappling with that one myself), this latest case of government-sanctioned trans activism against defenders of basic biology is no less disturbing.
After a four-hour hearing that reportedly packed the house and spilled out the door, the school board of West Point, Virginia, voted unanimously Thursday to fire 47-year-old French teacher Peter Vlaming for insubordination after he reportedly continued referring to a biologically female student as “her,” even after she announced she was “transitioning” into becoming a boy. Vlaming explained that his Christian beliefs prevented him from referring to the young woman as a boy, and that he’d already had the student in a class the year before when she was still presenting herself as a girl.
To make matters worse, Vlaming apparently didn’t even snub the student to her face, but rather simply continued using the correct female pronouns to describe her when talking to other people. (Oh, and he also apparently screwed up once while trying to keep the young lady from braining herself on some cinderblock.) NBC explains:
It’s not suggested that the 47-year-old West Point High School French teacher deliberately referred to the student using female pronouns in the student’s presence, but in conversations with others.
Witnesses described a “slip-up” when the student was about to run into a wall and Vlaming told others to stop “her.” When discussing the incident with administrators, Vlaming made it clear he would not use male pronouns, a stance that led to his suspension referral for disciplinary action.
West Point schools Superintendent Laura Abelaccused Vlaming of “creating a hostile learning environment” by declining to cater to the student’s new gender identity.
Vlaming’s attorney, on the other hand, is arguing that his client has constitutional rights – rights that include not being forced by the state to say things that violate his conscience and deeply held beliefs.
“That is not tolerance,” Vlaming said. “That is coercion.”