Loudoun County Circuit Court has ruled that teachers cannot be forced to use trans and pronouns for students.
In a victory for speech and religious freedoms, the Loudoun County School District will no longer enforce a 2021 transgender policy requiring teachers and students to use pronouns inconsistent with a child’s biological sex.
The 2021 policy stated, “Staff or students who intentionally and persistently refuse to respect a student’s gender identity by using the wrong name and gender pronoun are in violation of this policy.”
Alliance Defending Freedom represented concerned teachers in the case.
“Thankfully, now after several years of litigation, the school has agreed that its policy does not and cannot compel teachers to use pronouns that students request which are inconsistent with the student’s sex,” said Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom.
“I treasure all my students, regardless of whether they identify as the opposite sex,” said Loudoun County High School history teacher Monica Gill, one of the plaintiffs in the suit. “However, the transgender policy threatened to make me ignore biological reality and lie to my students…. I’m pleased that the school district has now honored my constitutionally protected freedom to speak to my students in love and truth.”
Teachers not only felt the district policy conflicted with their speech rights, but felt that accommodating pronouns and trans identities would be harmful to students.
Loudoun Schools has a murky track record when it comes to protecting students.
The Virginia Supreme Court previously sanctioned the district for violating the rights of Leesburg Elementary School PE teacher Tanner Cross. Cross was fired by the district after speaking at a school board meeting saying that he believed the policy would violate teacher, student, and parents’ rights and harm students.
The school district is accused of covering-up sexual assaults and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is investing the district for Title IX violations involving filming underage boys in the locker room.
(RELATED: Sex Offender Gained Access to High School Girls Locker Room By Claiming to Be Trans).
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