Virginia teacher who was fired over refusing to use student's preferred pronouns awarded $575,000

A Virginia teacher who refused to use a student's preferred pronouns has been awarded $575,000 after filing a lawsuit against the former school district he worked for more than five years ago, according to court fillings and attorneys in the case.

High school teacher Peter Vlaming, who taught high school French in West Point for about seven years, filed a $1 million lawsuit against the West Point School Board in 2019 after his former employer fired him, court documents show.

Vlaming, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, avoided using he/him pronouns when referring to a student who had transitioned and, instead, used the student’s preferred name.

School leaders ordered him to stop avoiding the use of pronouns to refer to the student, who had transitioned, and to start using the student's preferred pronouns of he/him, according to previous local media reports and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a non-profit legal group.

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Caleb Dalton, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said the West Point School Board agreed to pay $575,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees. The settlement was signed by a judge on Monday.

West Point Public Schools Superintendent Larry L. Frazier Jr. said in a statement issued to the Washington Post that the school system was pleased to come to an agreement “that will not have a negative impact on the students, staff or school community of West Point.”

The school has since adopted transgender policies issued by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Post reported. The Republican governor's guidelines, handed down in 2022, reversed some transgender protections and gave parents authority over whether a student can change their preferred identity and name in school records, USA TODAY previously reported.

Dalton, who framed the settlement as "a win for freedom of speech in Virginia," told USA TODAY that public educators "shouldn’t force teachers to endorse beliefs they disagree with."

"No government should force its employees − or anyone else − to voice their allegiance to an ideology that violates their deepest beliefs," Dalton said.

USA TODAY has reached out to Frazier and the school board's attorneys in the case.

Dalton said West Point also cleared Vlaming’s firing from his record.

Vlaming is working for a French book publisher, his attorney said Thursday.

Contributing: Cady Stanton and Alia Wong, USA TODAY

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.