The Virginia Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling ordering the reinstatement of a Loudoun County teacher who said he would not address students by their chosen pronouns.
The ruling on Monday is the latest development in a legal fight involving Tanner Cross, a gym teacher at Leesburg Elementary who was suspended after speaking at a May 25 school board meeting.
He said his religious beliefs would not allow him to follow the rules requiring him to address transgender students by their preferred gender.
SCHOOL BOARD ACTIVISM RETURNS AS LOUDOUN COUNTY ADVANCES CONTROVERSIAL TRANSGENDER RULES
“I’m a teacher, but I serve God first. And I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa, because it is against my religion. It’s lying to a child. It’s abuse to a child,” Cross said.
Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian legal group representing Cross, sued the county school board and filed for an emergency injunction to stop his suspension.
A Loudoun County Circuit judge, James Plowman, ruled in Cross’s favor and stated he lawfully exercised his right to free speech.
The school district “respectfully disagreed” and appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Tanner Cross was suspended by Loudoun County Public Schools after he said he wouldn’t call transgender students by their preferred pronouns, citing religious reasons. https://t.co/WyolbMqYA6
— WSLS 10 (@wsls) August 31, 2021
“Many students and parents at Leesburg Elementary have expressed fear, hurt and disappointment about coming to school,” Loudoun County Public Schools said in a statement.
LCPS said it “respects the rights of public-school employees to free speech and free exercise of religion,” but “those rights do not outweigh the rights of students to be educated in a supportive and nurturing environment.”
The school district said Cross’s comments disrupted this nurturing environment, but Virginia’s high court disagreed.
The high court ruled that calls from parents received by school officials did not produce the sort of disruption that justified a suspension.
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Loudoun County Public Schools has not yet commented on the ruling.
