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Virginia High School Teacher Fired Over Religious Objections to Using
Townhall.com ^ | December 10, 2018 | Lauretta Brown

Posted on 12/10/2018 5:05:50 PM PST by Kaslin

A teacher at West Point High School in Virginia was fired recently over his religious objections to using male pronouns when referring to a student who is biologically female but identifies as male.

The West Point School Board unanimously voted 5-0 Thursday to dismiss 47-year-old French teacher Peter Vlaming following a four-hour hearing. They argued that he was in “willful violation of school board policy.”

“We do not and cannot tolerate discrimination in any form, or actions that create a hostile environment for any member of our school family,” they said in a statement. “Mr. Vlaming was asked repeatedly, over several weeks and by multiple administrators, to address a student by the pronouns with which this student identifies. The issue before us was not one mistaken slip of the tongue. Mr. Vlaming consistently refused to comply going forward -- including in a statement made at the hearing -- a willful violation of school board policy.”

Vlaming cited his Christian faith and told his superiors that he was willing to use the student’s name and simply avoid using feminine pronouns but he says the school rejected that compromise.

"That discrimination then leads to creating a hostile learning environment. And the student had expressed that. The parent had expressed that," West Point schools Superintendent Laura Abel said regarding Vlaming's insistence on avoiding the student's preferred pronouns. "They felt disrespected."

However, some parents and students support Vlaming and there is a petition underway entitled “Don’t Terminate Mr. Vlaming” which has 2,632 supporters.

"I'm just outraged about it," Forrest Rohde, a West Point High School junior told WRIC. "He's a really nice guy, he wanted to do everything about his students. He really does care about his students. The thing he will not do is change his ways of thoughts and believing in things just to conform to someone else's ideologies."

"I see this stuff on the news far away from here," he added, "but when it hits close to home and someone's free speech is being violated, I have to step in and say something about it."

One parent pointed out that the school did not even have a specific policy in place in regard to the use of gender pronouns.

“If there’s no policy in place, how can they just let him go?” Jennifer Haynes, a 52-year-old West Point High parent, asked.

Vlaming's lawyer, Shawn Voyles, who noted this as well, argued that his client has constitutional rights.

"One of those rights that is not curtailed is to be free from being compelled to speak something that violates your conscience," he said.

As for Vlaming, he said that he respects the views of other and was just aiming for some “mutual tolerance.”

“That is not tolerance,” he said. “That is coercion.”

He is consulting with his attorney about appropriate legal action.

“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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: education; homosexualagenda; transgender; virginia; virgunia
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The rest of the title is: Student's Preferred Pronouns
1 posted on 12/10/2018 5:05:50 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

You can’t work here if you do not indulge delusions!


2 posted on 12/10/2018 5:10:09 PM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Kaslin

Got to play in to their mental illness to avoid hurting their unearned self esteem.


3 posted on 12/10/2018 5:11:43 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Twitter is Trump's laser pointer and the DemocRats are all cats.)
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To: Kaslin

Religious objections? How about ordinary sanity objections?


4 posted on 12/10/2018 5:11:48 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Kaslin

The student demanding the teacher, and everyone else, lie - for their benefit, created the hostile environment in the first place.

!@#$$&^^(* snowflakes.


5 posted on 12/10/2018 5:14:55 PM PST by TheZMan (I am a secessionist.)
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To: Kaslin

Nevermind religious objections, didn’t the teacher object to the idiocy of indoctrinating those young’uns to tolerate, and ultimately encourage, this particular disorder?

You know Teacher’s Union will celebrate his dismissal! Sad.


6 posted on 12/10/2018 5:16:20 PM PST by heterosupremacist (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

Many students have trouble with pronouns maybe we should just eliminate them.


7 posted on 12/10/2018 5:16:21 PM PST by cnsmom
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To: BenLurkin

The guy’s better off in the long run to wash his hands of the liberal autocracy and save his own soul from the disease of liberalism.


8 posted on 12/10/2018 5:21:04 PM PST by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man.)
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To: Kaslin
A teacher at West Point High School in Virginia was fired recently over his religious objections to using male pronouns when referring to a student who is biologically female but identifies as male.

This makes no sense, the student is a female. Identifying as a male does no make her male, and this is an institution of learning.

9 posted on 12/10/2018 5:29:42 PM PST by GregoTX
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To: Kaslin

It is not a religious objection.

It’s a 2+2=4 objection. It’s a water is wet objection. It’s a fire is hot objection. It’s an A=A objection.


10 posted on 12/10/2018 5:32:13 PM PST by Jim Noble (Freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2 = 4)
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To: Kaslin

She should have said it went beyond her beliefs siting biology. The only time religion is accepted as an excuse is if she were muzzy.


11 posted on 12/10/2018 5:37:41 PM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know. how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: Kaslin

Hope he sues - bigly !


12 posted on 12/10/2018 5:38:14 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: bgill

He.


13 posted on 12/10/2018 5:38:48 PM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know. how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: Kaslin
“We do not and cannot tolerate discrimination in any form,

WHich is why are going to Discriminate against this Teacher?
14 posted on 12/10/2018 5:40:12 PM PST by eyeamok
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To: Kaslin

The French language is particular about gender.

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/french/french-gender-rules/


15 posted on 12/10/2018 5:43:05 PM PST by ameribbean expat (Socialism is like a nude beach - - sounds great til you actually get there. -- David Burge.)
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To: Kaslin

SCIENCE REJECTS YOUR PRONOUNS!


16 posted on 12/10/2018 5:50:14 PM PST by Phillyred
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To: Kaslin
“We do not and cannot tolerate discrimination in any form, or actions that create a hostile environment for any member of our school family,”

So, a rational man must bow to the irrational desires of a child because it will create a hostile environment for the irrational delusions of that child.

17 posted on 12/10/2018 5:50:36 PM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit)
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To: Kaslin

“The West Point School Board unanimously voted 5-0 Thursday to dismiss 47-year-old French teacher Peter Vlaming.

If you damn, useless conservative idiots can’t get off your stupid asses to storm the schoolboard to challenge this crap, then you deserve a jackboot in your faces - forever.

Morons.


18 posted on 12/10/2018 5:59:23 PM PST by sergeantdave (Teach a man to fish and he'll steal your gear and sell it)
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To: Kaslin

Jordan Peterson’s debate on gender pronouns and free speech in Toronto. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiijS_9hPkM


19 posted on 12/10/2018 6:10:40 PM PST by Beave Meister (Leave the gun. Take the cannoli....)
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To: Kaslin

Remember when the adjective “discriminating” was considered a compliment?


20 posted on 12/10/2018 6:23:43 PM PST by ManHunter (You can run, but you'll only die tired... Army snipers: Reach out and touch someone)
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