(Pixabay)<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on WND.com<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Guest by post by Bob Unruh\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018Sweeping victory for free speech and religious freedom\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Calling it a \u201csweeping victory for free speech and religious liberty,\u201d the ADF has announced that the Virginia Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit by a former teacher for the West Point School Board charging officials there with violating his rights.<\/p>\n The fight erupted several years ago when the school demanded that the teacher use male pronouns for a female student, and he declined.<\/p>\n The ADF reported its lawyers represent Peter Vlaming, who taught French in the district for nearly seven years.<\/p>\n But he was fired when he explained he could not in good conscience call a girl a boy.<\/p>\n \u201cVlaming tried to accommodate the student by consistently using the student\u2019s new preferred name and by avoiding the use of pronouns altogether. But school officials ordered him to stop avoiding the use of pronouns to refer to the student, even when the student wasn\u2019t present, and to start using pronouns inconsistent with the student\u2019s sex,\u201d the ADF reported.<\/p>\n In essence, the school was ordering the teacher to join their promotion of the transgender ideology, and lie.<\/p>\n \u201cPeter wasn\u2019t fired for something he said; he was fired for something he couldn\u2019t say. The Virginia Supreme Court rightly agreed that Peter\u2019s case against the school board for violating his rights under the Virginia Constitution and state law should proceed,\u201d said ADF lawyer Chris Schandevel.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a teacher, Peter was passionate about the subject he taught, was well-liked by his students, and did his best to accommodate their needs and requests. But he couldn\u2019t in good conscience speak messages that he doesn\u2019t believe to be true, and no school board or government official can punish someone for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n The court ruling found that the state constitution \u201cseeks to protect diversity of thought, diversity of speech, diversity of religion, and diversity of opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n And, the court said, \u201cAbsent a truly compelling reason for doing so, no government committed to these principles can lawfully coerce its citizens into pledging verbal allegiance to ideological views that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n WND reported <\/a>last year when the state\u2019s highest court accepted the case that the issue was that the teacher refused school orders to lie.<\/p>\n Vlaming was fired for \u201cavoiding the use of personal pronouns\u201d regarding one student, and sued after he was dismissed.<\/p>\n When the case erupted,\u00a0<\/a>other students organized a protest against the school\u2019s decision to dismiss Vlaming.<\/p>\n At the time, Paul Nichols, a friend of Vlaming\u2019s who is superintendent of nearby Mecklenburg County Public Schools, told The Daily Signal that the teacher\u2019s situation is a direct reflection of what is happening in society.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only did he lose his job, but I think the whole thing has put other people in a position where they\u2019re scared that they will lose their job if they don\u2019t toe the line of current popular culture, progressive culture,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n The conflict came up because a 14-year-old girl told Vlaming she was transgender and he was required to use a masculine name and pronouns for her.<\/p>\n What triggered school officials to erupt in outrage was the fact that, during a class exercise in which students were wearing virtual headsets, guided by other students, he accidentally shouted, \u201cDon\u2019t let her hit the wall\u201d when the 14-year-old girl was heading out of bounds for the game.<\/p>\n He was taken off his job by the end of that day.<\/p>\n Copyright 2023 <\/span>WND News Center<\/a><\/p>\n The post Lawsuit Over School\u2019s Woke Speech Demands Resurrected by State Supremes<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Pixabay) This article originally appeared on WND.com Guest by post by Bob Unruh\u00a0 \u2018Sweeping victory for free speech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n