Posted on 12/05/2018 7:05:07 PM PST by csvset
WEST POINT, Va. (WRIC) -- Students and parents in West Point, a town roughly an hour east of Richmond, are rallying behind a teacher put on paid administrative leave following a transgender controversy at the school.
A French teacher at West Point High School, Peter Vlaming, is currently on paid administrative leave for not using a student's preferred identity pronoun.
8News reached out to the school for comment but West Point Public Schools cited the incident as "a personnel issue" and declined to respond about the status of Vlaming's case.
Students told 8News that Vlaming won't use male pronouns for a student who now identifies as a boy.
An online petition supporting Mr. Vlaming, which is titled "Don't terminate Mr. Vlaming," has over 1,000 signatures. The petition quotes Vlaming on his thoughts on the incident:
"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. 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."
On Tuesday, 8News spoke with a West Point High School student who says he is also supporting Vlaming.
"I'm just outraged about it," said Forrest Rohde, a West Point High School junior. "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."
Vlaming reportedly called a transgender student "she," but the student wants to be identified as a male.
"The transgender girl has the right to be whatever she wants but just because she has the right doesn't mean we're not obliged to follow her beliefs," Rohde said.
Rohde posted signs all over the school in support of the teacher after hearing Vlaming was put on administrative leave. The signs read: "Facts don't care about your feelings," "#Justice for Vlaming," and "Mr. Vlaming is innocent."
"I see this stuff on the news far away from here," Rohde said, "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."
The school confirmed to 8News on Tuesday that Vlaming is currently on paid administrative leave and that Vlaming requested a public hearing:
Mr. Vlaming is currently on paid administrative leave, and West Point Public Schools has followed and will continue to follow Virginia Code and all local policies and procedures relating to licensed staff members. The grievance process, including the purpose/results of a hearing, is governed by Virginia Code.
Because this is a personnel issue, we are unable to provide specific information due to employee and student confidentiality. Mr. Vlaming has requested a public hearing and details regarding our recommendations will become public at that hearing. Until that time, it is important that we not only ensure the integrity of our employment process but also meet our responsibilities regarding safeguarding student confidentiality.
- Abel Laura, West Point Public Schools superintendent
Legal analyst Russ Stone told 8News that it's uncertain whether or not the school has grounds to fire Vlaming.
The school board scheduled the public hearing for Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. at West Point High School.
8News will be at the school board meeting on Thursday to share the latest.
When does he get his own Nike ad?
Now you know why Russian Communists called everyone Comrade.
He will not get a fair shake. It will offer a good opportunity for parents to find out who really owns their kids.
This is exactly what free speech means. This is a government punishing a man for what he said.
There are also suggestion in the article that it went beyond even that to not saying what they were compelling him to say.
Nope, maybe the Supreme Court would save him and that is not a lock.
The student isn’t a “transgender”, but simply a cross-dresser.
Make the school and the student bring in his Birth Certificate. That’s an official birth notice and it will say what the baby’s “gender” is.
It’s like the scene in “Miracle on 34th Street” when the court acknowledged that the Post Office officially recognized Santa Claus as a person because of all the mail (using US stamps) addressed to him.
Time to do a PC-Not “whammy” on the school and their PC crap.
Perfect.
The kid was in a hurry — late for his English class.
Needs to be stopped that these ‘kids’ create conditions they know will get them attention.
Another guy kid claiming to be a girl ( a real freaky character) tried to pull the same stuff in another school....so this stuff needs to stop.
“How does one know another’s “preferred identity pronoun”?”
Mine is “Your Majesty”
This world is upside down.
I thought we had matured out of PC.
Just call her - freak.
Another victim to DemocRat identity politics
Great observation.
There was a real-life king (King Charles something) that had episodes where he was made out of glass. He would have his servants pack him in straw and carry him everywhere so that he wouldn't break.
Chaucer(?) wrote a poem about it and it made the rounds in the community. Soon other people were coming down with these beliefs that they were made out of glass. This went on for a couple hundred years in the Middle Ages.
All sorts of other social contagions out there (the “crying” disease back in the day in Africa, anorexia, cutting, school shootings, etc.)
The huge increase in transgenders (especially young girls) also points to a social contagion for much of it.
Calling them by their requested name or pronoun doesn't change the fact that they are still the sex they were born with - but it will reinforce their wrong ideas. (Just like a teacher calling the student stupid enough times will make the kid think that he really is stupid. But instead he just needs eyeglasses.)
I wonder if the trans-activists would say “But King Charles really WAS made out of glass. Do you really think he would have gone to all of that trouble if he really wasn't?”
Being transgender is a disconnect between the mind and the body. The trans-activists think that it is easier to change the body than the mind. But in the end, they are just fooling the mind (in successful cases). So it is still all in the mind.
don’t blame the parents.
This goes way beyond them.
Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria ROGD hysteria s sweeping the country in the same way that Ritual Child Satanic Sexual abuse hysteria swept the country in the nineties.
Hysterical and delusional teenaged girls, (they are mostly girls) is nothing new in history.
Horrible leftists will be knocking on your door one day and punishing you for not following every one of their laws and rules if we do not fight back today and everyday against everything they do.
JoMa
That’s one of the downsides of whiskey... It can make a man mistake words for thoughts.
Here we go. You lose your job for not saying the word that the new fascist dictatorship orders you to say.
Anybody who thinks this is the sweet land of liberty is an a$$hole. Let freedom ring! Bull$Hit!
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