A former high school teacher fired for not using the pronouns of a transgender student has reached a settlement with a Virginia school board for $575,000, according to the advocacy group that filed a lawsuit on his behalf.
Peter Vlaming sued the school board and administrators at the school he was fired from in 2018.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit before any evidence was reviewed, but the state Supreme Court reinstated it in December.
The Daily Press reported that West Point Public Schools Superintendent Larry Frazier confirmed the settlement and said in an email Monday that "we are pleased to be able to reach a resolution that will not have a negative impact on the students, staff or school community of West Point."
Vlaming, who was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, was fired after refusing to use a transgender student's preferred pronouns.
He claimed in his lawsuit that he tried to accommodate the student in his class by using his name but avoided the use of pronouns. The student, his parents and the school told him he was required to use the student's male pronouns. Vlaming said he could not use the student's pronouns because of his "sincerely held religious and philosophical" beliefs "that each person's sex is biologically fixed and cannot be changed." Vlaming also said he would be lying if he used the student's pronouns.
Vlaming claimed that his right to freely exercise his religion was violated under the Virginia Constitution.
"I was wrongfully fired from my teaching job because my religious beliefs put me on a collision course with school administrators who mandated that teachers ascribe to only one perspective on gender identity — their preferred view," Vlaming said in an ADF news release. "I loved teaching French and gracefully tried to accommodate every student in my class, but I couldn't say something that directly violated my conscience."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.