Posted on 12/12/2018 10:02:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Students at a public high school have demonstrated their support for a Christian teacher fired from his position because he refused to refer to a trans-identified student by their preferred pronoun.
Less than 24 hours after the West Point, Virginia school board unanimously voted to terminate high school French instructor Peter Vlaming, a large group of students walked out of their classes to protest the decision.
“He's an amazing man,” student Wyatt Pedersen told WWBT News. “I think he really was going with what he believed was right and it's really unfair that he’s being punished for that, especially in such a dramatic way.”
“I feel like everyone should have the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion as well,” said Junior Zachary Gonzalez.
Forrest Rohde, the West Point High School junior who organized the walkout, emphasized that the protest was not about the transgender student. Rather, he said students took issue with the school board “trying to force the teacher to conform to their ideologies with the threat of removal from the school.”
“The child is going through a lot,” Rohde said. “We shouldn’t be directing this towards her, we should be directing this towards the school board.”
Following a brief suspension, Vlaming was fired after the school board accused him of engaging in “discrimination” and contributing to a “hostile learning environment.”
The teacher explained that while he agreed to use the student's chosen name, he drew the line at pronouns, as doing so violated his conscience.
“I won't use male pronouns with a female student that now identifies as a male though I did agree to use the new masculine name but avoid female pronouns,” said Vlaming in response to the suspension.
“Administration is requiring that I use masculine pronouns in any and every context at school. I was informed that any further instances of using female pronouns would be grounds for termination.”
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page set up to help Vlaming cover legal fees and provide for his family has raised over $20,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. With four children under the age of 10, Vlaming, who had taught at West Point for seven years, was the only source of income for his family, the page notes.
Wrote one supporter: “Our prayers are with you and your family. Thank you for standing up for your beliefs; God will have the victory!”
“A teacher that has the support of his students deserves to be supported by everyone,” added another.
Vlaming’s attorney, Shawn Voyles, maintained that the school system was not respecting the constitutional rights of his client, but praised West Point for permitting students to participate in the walkout.
“We are glad to see that West Point Public Schools permitted this peaceful protest today,” Voyles said. “That was not the case in November when the students began circulating a petition to return my client to his job.
As a student testified at the hearing yesterday, the high school principal actually confiscated the petition. It unfortunately took a threat of legal action by a student to have it returned.”
Voyles said he is considering how to proceed, including a possible appeal with the circuit court, adding that tolerance should be a “two-way street.”
“Unfortunately, tolerance on the part of the school division has been noticeably absent,” he said. “It chose to impose its own orthodoxy on Mr. Vlaming and fired him because he didn't relinquish his rights protected by the First Amendment.”
For example, the trans continental railroad, which made it possible to go all the way across the country by train.
Obama called it the inter continental railroad. He was clearly guilty of transphobia.
/s
Their cause is in the right place. You can't fool mother nature.
We need to teach ourselves and our kids a few more adjectives to describe someone, other than "amazing". It is so overused in reality TV it makes for a perfect drinking game catchphrase.
We could try “brilliant”. That’s not been overused, has it? (And, I love my President, but I tremendously wish he’d find some new adjectives and superlatives).
“I now know the shame of being ogled at work by men.”
I liked being ogled at work by men.
Recall the school board.
I identify as Bruce Jenner and that ugly chick needs to give me my Olympic medals!
Just keep remembering these incidents in the context of “how does my gay marriage affect your marriage?”. That’s how the left operates. And their ultimate goal is yet to be realized.
When you can’t even agree on what constitutes basic reality. It is time to separate.
One wonders if the "tranny" wanting everyone's attention not only wants it on the basis of biological confusion but also because he/she/it is numerically confused as well? She thinks she is not one but two, three or more males? Or is it just the author who is confused?
Doesn’t matter- the communist objective is to silence. They really do not care about these mentally messed up people.
Wonder if this all started when some attention whore or joker said, “Hold my beer and watch this- I can change the whole world just by whining to liberals who believe their purpose in life is to virtue-signal on social media.”
If it doesn’t know what it is, why not just call it IT?
“Your mental illness does not require me to humor your delusions”
I’m going to remember and use that one...
Question.... If I am fired for not using proper pronouns due to my Turret’s Syndrome, is it a violation of the American’s with Disabilities Act?
sorry for butchering the spelling....Tourette Syndrome
If I don't know what gender to call a person, I'll say He/She/It.
With my slight southern drawl, it comes out "Hee...sheeeyit." :)
Agree! It is getting totally out of hand.
My friend used to just call them he-shes. As a noun.
Not sure if she (oops) uses that appellation anymore (she moved to FL and I don’t talk to her as much). No one seems to think it’s “bad” to be a he-she anymore.
One interesting point about this story: the man is a French teacher. The pronoun thing takes on a whole new meaning against that backdrop. In French, and other Romance languages, there is no neutered gender (”it”). Everything is masculine or feminine, based on what it is.
I praise him for his conscience and his decision, I just find this interesting and indicative of the issue that has arisen now that gender has replaced sex in our every day speech.
Contact information for communications:
School board members:
Mr. Paul Diggs - Chairman
pdiggs@wpschools.net
Mr. Elliot Jenkins - Vice Chairman
ejenkins@wpschools.net
Mrs. Phyllis Dorsey
pdorsey@wpschools.net
Ms. Kay Lawson
klawson@wpschools.net
Mrs. Dudley P. Olsson
dolsson@wpschools.net
Superintendent:
Laura K. Abel
label@wpschools.net
(804) 843-4386
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