Teacher Fired for not using Pronoun

[LS1Z28]

Actually Virginia is not "at-will" state when it comes to public education. Similar to North Carolina, Virginia has "career status" protection which protects teachers from being fired for political purposes.

This has widely been discussed and information provided on other threads. "Career status" was put in place for teachers to protect them from political firing. For example the biology teacher who teaches evolution in the classroom is protected from being fired from the school board made up of right-wing bible belters -- as long as the teacher properly taught the state curriculum. (Yes, this has happened in both North Carolina & Virginia -- and the courts awarded significant damages).

In the old days, teachers were fired every time the County Commissioners or School Board changed hands. Usually they would fire all the teachers who did not support them. "Career status" was put in place to eliminate these political firings and protect teachers.

This teacher in Virginia who strictly stuck to federal and state laws & guidelines in their teaching is clearly protected under "career status", and "at-will" employment will have nothing to do with the upcoming successful wrongful termination lawsuit.

Good info. I wasn't aware that he Virginia had this type of protection in place for teachers. It sounds like he might have a fighting chance if he chooses to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

 

[gwb-trading]

Good info. I wasn't aware that he Virginia had this type of protection in place for teachers. It sounds like he might have a fighting chance if he chooses to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

"Career Status" is fairly weak - it is common throughout non-union states for K-12 teachers. "Career Status" is the North Carolina term - other states may use different language. "Career status" is not "tenure" and is only meant to protect teachers from political firing. It requires a proper review process for a firing in this type of situation -- where a teacher is being disciplined and has not deviated from the law or curriculum after having a minimum number of years in the system with non-negative performance reviews.

This means that if an administrator has a poor performing teacher (a common problem) - the teacher must be managed out via a defined performance review process with an adequate set of written warnings etc. over a period of time. In a public school, they can just not fire the teacher on a whim if the educator has not violated the law or educational guidelines. If a teacher hits a student, was arrested for a crime, or somehow had a major infraction then the administrator can fire a teacher in a "on-will" manner.

Keep in mind that "career status" is totally different situation than the "Contracts" that several states are using now to lock teachers in for only one year, two years, or four years. This "Contract" system is being applied to many new teachers in a number of Southern states. It is a way to ensure that "tenure" -- that is being pushed for by teachers -- is never instituted. The legislatures were trying to use it as a method of pushing old, higher-paid teachers out of their jobs but the courts stopped this.

 

[UsualName]

Once again-- the teacher strictly aligned with federal and state laws and guidelines in his teaching & interactions. What legal grounds did the school board have to fire the teacher?

BTW -- I did not support the lady who denied the same sex marriage licenses. She was breaking the current law in the state at the time she was doing it. Nor did I ever support Pharmacists who refuse to provide birth control - which also breaks the law in their respective states. I have little tolerance for religious nuts breaking the law.

However this teacher did nothing to break the law; he strictly stuck to legal and education guidelines; he is not the problem. If he had done something like insisting on using the previous gender pronoun for the student then he would be the problem (and creating a hostile environment for the student).

You had a bunch of politically driven school board members insisting that he always address the student with the new gender pronoun rather than their given name. By federal and state law he is only required to address the student by their given name -- in fact the guidelines state you should avoid addressing students using gender pronouns if possible. A school board and administrators with a political agenda fired him - which will cost the district a lot of money once the court system is done with them.

What state and federal guidelines are you referring to?