A former teacher in Virginia received $575,000 in a settlement to end his lawsuit after he was fired by West Point High School in 2018 for refusing to use the preferred gender of a student who identified as transgender, the conservative legal organization behind the lawsuit announced on Tuesday.
The Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF) announced on Tuesday it reached a settlement with the West Point School Board after the firing of Peter Vlaming, who taught French at West Point High School prior to his firing in 2018.
Vlaming (pictured above), according to the ADF, will receive $575,000 from the West Point School Board, which will also pay his attorneys fees for the lengthy lawsuit.
ADF celebrated the settlement in a statement posted to the social media platform X, where it declared, “No government should force its employees (or anyone else) to voice their allegiance to an ideology that violates their deepest beliefs.”
‼️VICTORIOUS SETTLEMENT‼️
VA school board will pay $575K & change policies to end our lawsuit on behalf of teacher Peter Vlaming who was wrongly fired for declining to use inaccurate pronouns.
No government should force its employees (or anyone else) to voice their allegiance… pic.twitter.com/lpltT7PfR4
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) October 1, 2024
Vlaming said in a statement, “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.” He added, “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,” and expressed his gratitude to ADF for taking his case.
“Peter wasn’t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn’t say. The school board violated his First Amendment rights under the Virginia Constitution and commonwealth law,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer in a statement, adding 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 stated, “We’re pleased to favorably 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.”
The settlement with the school board comes after years of litigation, including an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court in 2022, resulting in a favorable opinion for Vlaming and the ADF last year.
It came after Governor Glenn Youngkin announced new guidance on school bathroom and pronoun policies. ADF announced that the West Point School Board would simultaneously update its school policies to comply with the governor’s policies and the settlement.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Peter Vlaming” by ADF.
