A Loudoun County, Virginia, circuit court judge reinstated Tuesday an elementary school gym teacher suspended in May after he spoke publicly against a proposed plan that would require county public school teachers to address transgender students by their preferred gender pronouns, not by their biological sex.
Leesburg Elementary School gym teacher Tanner Cross sued the Loudoun County School Board on the grounds that he spoke out against the proposed policy at a public school board meeting as an ordinary citizen, not as a teacher, and that in suspending him and prohibiting him from speaking at further school board meetings, the board was effectively silencing his First Amendment rights, and his free exercise of religion.
In the public comment session during which Cross spoke in May, he also stated the proposed transgender policy violated his religious beliefs.
Through his counsel, Tyson Langhofer of Alliance Defending Freedom, Cross also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, asking to be reinstated in the classroom.
In ordering Cross’s reinstatement, Judge Jim Plowman cited Virginia precedent that held “the loss of First Amendment freedoms for even minimal periods of time unquestioningly constitute irreparable injury. Here, plaintiff has been suspended due to his speech, barred from further speech, and similarly situated employees have been chilled from speech because of defendant’s action.”
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The injunction remains “in full force” until December 31, 2021, unless the full lawsuit is concluded, in which case the injunction is dissolved.
