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.”
I am trying to get my mind around when the teacher would use the pronoun. He would say “John (used to be Mary), what is the answer to this question. That is right”. So only if the teacher was speaking ABOUT John would it even be necessary to use a pronoun. How often would that even happen. Did this happen in front of the parents at a parent-teacher interview. “John, well she is doing pretty well in Math.”
To be crude about it, you look down at your groin, and that is how normal people figure out if they are a she or he.
“a large group of students walked out of their classes to protest the decision.”
And the parents are....where?
Here’s lesson 101 about school:
1. Schools are controlled by schoolboards.
2. Parents need to attend schoolboard meetings.
3. By attending schoolboard meetings, parents will once again control their schools.
4. If perchance the schoolboard doesn’t do what parents tell it to do, parents can vote individual schoolboard members off the schoolboard.
That ends the lesson for today.
“He said he will identify as royalty and must be referred to as “Your Majesty”.”
CEO would be better. It comes with a parking space.
Dear SeekAndFind,
Regarding the title for this thread, “Students *walkout* to protest firing.” That should read “Students **walk out** to protest firing.” The word walkout is not a verb. They need to teach the proper use of our language.
OK, everyone can continue what they were doing.. I will try to stay silent.
Sounds like tarring and feathering is in order...
Actually, I prefer the moat to a parking place
Actually, this is a very good point.
The attack on the teacher is particularly vile, because in a gendered language like French or German, the mental assignment is almost pre-thought, since the distinction is embedded in your immediate perception.
Of course, the effing retarded "jerbilists" who are "reporting" this story have an IQ of about 85, and don't have the brains to learn how to speak a foreign language or begin to understand the nuances...
I don't know why anyone would want to be around them, period. At least knowingly.
A FRENCH teacher!
The language in which gender accuracy is extremely important to clear speech!
But there are some strange gender “assignments”:
“Le feminisme” is masculine.
But “La masculinité is feminine!
I can’t help picturing this: A bunch of people in a little room deciding, “Yeah, and then when we all choose a new identity, we make them refer to us by these screwy made-up pronouns that they’ll never remember,” and then cackling with wicked glee for a while.
They will find a way to criminalize that: depersoning someone by refusing to address him/her/it.
Appropriating the symptoms of a deaf mute.
A new walk away movement.
Pretend you are an Indian and SIOUX/SUE/SUE the School Administration.
Time to stop this crap, in court if necessary, and in the wallet as a necessity.
#19. I’m gonna need a longer envelope when I address a letter to you, and way more stamps.
Can I just address you as we did the famous artist, DADA?
To the Left, which always claims we aren’t playing nice, being courteous has no value...they demand everyone subjugate themselves to the sickest the human race has to offer....
“He said he will identify as royalty and must be referred to as “Your Majesty”.”
Better yet, try this:
My name is El Conquistador.
He could identify as a member of congress and get all kinds of goodies.
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