Situations like this are only going to get more frequent for teachers:
The Virginia Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case brought by a Virginia high school teacher fired for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
A lower court had dismissed Peter Vlaming’s complaint that his termination from West Point High School violated his constitutional rights.
Mr. Vlaming, who had taught French for seven years in the public school district east of Richmond, said he couldn’t in good conscience follow the superintendent’s order to call one of his transgender student by masculine pronouns. He agreed to refer to the student by a different name — as requested by the student — and he avoided using any pronouns while in the student’s presence...
Mr. Vlaming was placed on administrative leave in 2018 and fired in 2019 by the West Point School Board for not fully accommodating the teen.
The story did not go into detail about how the teacher did not fully accommodate the student, but I'd be most interested in those details.
Update: Here's some information from a 2019 CNN story about the teacher:
French teacher Peter Vlaming said he couldn’t “in good conscience” comply, citing his religious beliefs, according to the complaint. He consistently used the student’s preferred male name and attempted to avoid the use of any pronouns at all, his lawsuit says.
The school, according to the lawsuit, gave the teacher an ultimatum: Use the student’s preferred pronouns or lose your job.
School officials suspended the teacher for insubordination. Vlaming was ultimately fired after he refused to use the male pronouns and for repeatedly ignoring orders from his bosses...
The decision to fire the teacher came after a virtual reality exercise in the classroom, where Vlaming called out, “Don’t let her hit the wall!” as the transgender student walked in that direction, the lawsuit states.
The student waited for all the students to leave class that day before approaching the teacher, the lawsuit says.
“Mr. Vlaming, you may have your religion,” the student said, according to the suit, “but you need to respect who I am!”
Vlaming said it was an unintentional slip of the tongue.
School officials said the educator was insubordinate and failed to follow directives from administrators. And, officials said, the teacher could not be allowed to treat the transgender student differently.
“That discrimination then leads to creating a hostile learning environment. And the student had expressed that,” Superintendent Laura Abel told the Richmond Times-Dispatch late last year. “The parent had expressed that. They felt disrespected.”
That is insubordination? Sounds like a weak justification for firing to me.
Had a "trans-gendered" person at my work place.
ReplyDeleteI used "her" name, but I avoided using pronouns when referring to this person.
Luckily, "she" works in a different area now.
I never had to do this when I was teaching, but I could see it coming.
It almost sounds like he was set up to fail.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what would have happened if the teacher had used "them" instead.
I had a similar situation in an art class where the student had grown upic as Courtney and was listed on the roll as that name. The first day of class I was calling roll and the student said "I go by _______" and while I really did try to adhere to that, human nature is what it is. I will say I had this student later on in a second level class and while I had no problem with the student, I saw no happiness or joy or friendly interactions in the entire time of the class. I have worked with people outside of teaching and with students as a teacher dealing with this same illusion regarding their own identity and without exception they led chaotic and depressing lives. I doubt that cramming their mental illness down our throats will do anything to improve that.
ReplyDelete