A Virginia elementary school teacher may be able to continue teaching after all, at least for the time being, per a Virginia Supreme Court order this week. While the ruling is a win for First Amendment advocates, the circumstances surrounding the issue show liberals continue to indoctrinate students in school by forcing transgender ideology on students and teachers.
On Monday, the court issued an order that affirmed a lower court’s previous decision to reinstate Tanner Cross, a physical education teacher at Leesburg Elementary School, after he objected to a proposed policy that would require staff, teachers, and students, to refer to students with their “preferred pronouns,” or pronouns that match the gender they identify with, rather than their biological sex.
Cross voiced his objections during a school board meeting when public questions and comments were allowed, and Loudoun County Public Schools suspended him and even banned him from Loudoun County Public Schools property and events. A lower court ruled that the suspension violated his First Amendment rights, and the Virginia Supreme Court agreed.
Tanner’s comments during the public school board meeting were logical, wise, and even compassionate:
Unfortunately, the school board eventually passed a version of the proposed policy discussed at the meeting. Interestingly, in the Virginia Supreme Court’s order, it’s clear several parents supported Cross’ comments, and now additional teachers have joined the lawsuit with Cross to challenge the absurd policy.
The current result of this case, Loudoun County School Board v. Cross, is positive; a high court ruled to uphold Cross’ First Amendment rights. However, the fact that one of the largest school districts in Virginia decided to suspend Cross and ban him from school property for making such a statement during a public school board meeting is alarming in and of itself. A person such as Cross — that is to say an outspoken person of faith — should not have to use a group such as Alliance Defending Freedom to ensure that his First Amendment rights remain intact while he does his job. The fact that the school instituted the policy anyway is even more disturbing.
It’s one thing for school districts to create an atmosphere of compassion for children in puberty who are dealing with gender dysphoria, but it’s quite another to require staff, teachers, and students to defy science and logic and to engage in the all-out denial of sex differences and embrace the mysticism of gender transitions and gender-fluid pronouns, especially when social or medical transitions have not been proven to help children. The Virginia Supreme Court order is encouraging, but school districts’ aggressive, all-encompassing efforts to accept and propagate transgender ideology, to the detriment of science and faith, is discouraging.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
