Posted on 12/07/2018 6:19:16 PM PST by Petrosius
WEST POINT, Virginia, December 7, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A school board in the Virginia town of West Point has unanimously voted to fire a high school French teacher who respectfully refused to refer to a female gender-confused student as male, despite the vocal support of other students.
This school year, one of Peter Vlaming’s students at West Point High School came back having “transitioned” to living as a boy over the summer, and wanted to be recognized as such. Vlaming agreed to use the masculine name she had chosen and attempted to avoid referring to her with female pronouns, but said his Christian faith prevented him from calling a girl “he” or “him.”
Nevertheless, the girl says the compromise made her feel “singled out,” and her family complained to the administration, which placed him on administrative leave. At Vlaming’s request, the West Point School Board held a four-hour hearing Thursday evening to consider the matter.
Before an overflow crowd containing many students and parents who supported the embattled teacher, the board voted 5-0 to fire him, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
“That discrimination then leads to creating a hostile learning environment,” West Point schools Superintendent Laura Abel said. “Mr. Vlaming was recommended for termination due to his insubordination and repeated refusal to comply with directives made to him by multiple WPPS administrators.”
“Does this board expect its employees to follow its policies or not?” asked Stacy Haney, a lawyer representing the school district. West Point High Principal Jonathan Hochman claimed he couldn’t “think of a worse way to treat a child than what was happening.”
But Vlaming and his attorney Shawn Voyles noted that not only was there no allegation that the teacher had consciously “misgendered” the student or otherwise acted maliciously toward her, the district’s “nondiscrimination” policy has no specific guidance on gender pronouns.
“One of those rights that is not curtailed” when one becomes a public employee “is to be free from being compelled to speak something that violates your conscience,” Voyles said.
Vlaming himself stressed that he had attempted to find a compromise in the spirit of “mutual tolerance,” but his superiors rejected it to punish him for holding views about sex held by “most of the world for most of human history.”
“That is not tolerance,” he declared. “That is coercion [...] I am being punished for what I haven’t said.”
Much of the crowd sided with Vlaming, calling him a “model teacher” who went above and beyond for the kids by working as a soccer coach and bus driver, and bearing “Justice for Mr. Vlaming” signs they had to leave by the door.
“If there’s no policy in place, how can they just let him go?” wondered Jennifer Haynes, a parent at the school. Junior Forrest Rohde has previously called Vlaming a “really nice guy” who “wanted to do everything about his students” and “really does care about his students.” An online petition defending Vlaming is up to 1,928 signatures at the time of this writing.
The only specific instance detailed in which Vlaming called the student “she” came during a class activity with a virtual reality headset. The student couldn’t see, and at one point Vlaming instinctively told someone to stop “her” from running into a wall. Vlaming called it a “slip-up,” but noted that Principal Hochman himself had accidentally called the student “her” as well.
Vlaming, who taught French at West Point High for almost seven years and is currently working toward a master’s in school administration at the College of William & Mary, says he wants to consult with his lawyer before deciding whether to pursue a wrongful-termination suit. Voyles says the district’s nondiscrimination policy is “unconstitutionally vague.”
“I have to research how we would do that, what that would entail,” Vlaming said. “I do think it’s a serious question of First Amendment rights.”
School board members:
Mr. Paul Diggs - Chairman
pdiggs@wpschools.net
The board is obviously comprised of Communist scumbags.
Just call It by last name.
We need to take over the school boards or remove our kids. It’s that simple. And we need to hire sane teachers to teach our kids.
It’d be a real shame if this kind of nonsense causes so much anarchy throughout the government school systems that they have to shut them down.
On the road to suicide as a nation.
This is called West Point High School?
So should we assume there is some connection to the famous West Point College?
They need to draw up some policies asap. They will lose a lot of good teachers over this nonsense.
Now, watch the Trans-student say there is now a toxic environment, and almost nobody wants to speak with HER.
After causing all that turmoil, the Trans student may leave, having been ostracized by HER own warped sense of self.
Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
“Contact information for respectful communications:”
How about for letting the despicable swine have both barrels?
E.G., Dear Filth, you will rot in hell for your vile behavior...
West Point High Principal Jonathan Hochman claimed he couldn’t “think of a worse way to treat a child than what was happening.”
Uh huh.
Has any school board/principal fought this hard to fire a teacher who has raped or molested a student?
How about just “hey you there”?
Public school - a collection of ill-educated sods.
My nephew just hosted a home-schooled woman over Thanksgiving. What a pleasure to find someone so polite, gracious, and well-educated. She actually could think.
I then think of Occasional Cortex, a contestant for dumbest woman ever.
Parents, keep your child far, far, FAR away from any publik skooool teacher with an eddikashun degree.
If West Point High School is a public school then this issue looks like a violation of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment by state actors.
From the 14th Amendment:
"Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States [emphasis added]; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
"Section 5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."
H O W E V E R …
I surmise that Mr. Vlaming is probably unaware of his 14A protections.
But even if he is aware of his 14A protections, we still have a corrupt Congress that predictably won’t lift a finger to exercise its 14A power to make laws that discourage state actors from abridging constitutionally enumerated protections.
On the other hand, anti-free speech Berkeley has had to pay a 14A-related settlement.
Conservatives Triumphant Over Free Speech Hating UC Berkeley
So yes, there’s hope for Mr. Vlaming.
Sue, sue and SUE.
Sue and recall the school board.
We are to join the mental illness of he, she, it? That is what is perverted and not natural.
I’m sure the teacher’s union will back the teacher...LOL
Fight the homofascists in court. The DNA evidence would not hold up their assertion of a sex change.
>>he couldn’t “think of a worse way to treat a child than what was happening.”
Fu’ the fgtry
Homofascists told us this was simply about the actions of consenting adults in private and now we are stuck with this sht in our schools with minors who are being sexually groomed by elders.
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