A Christian teacher in Virginia who was suspended for refusing to lie to children about their sexuality has been reinstated, as ordered by a circuit judge.
Tanner Cross, an elementary school P.E. teacher in Loudoun County, was placed on administrative leave last month after daring to speak publicly of his faith and his opposition to a school policy.
“It’s not my intention to hurt anyone, but there are certain truths that we must face when ready,” he stated during a meeting of the local school board . “We condemn school policies like AD40 and AD35 because it will damage children [and] defile the holy image of God.”
The two policies would require teachers to use a child’s preferred pronouns instead of the one that corresponds to their biological sex, in some cases without parental notification or consent.
“I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences,” Cross continued. “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’s against my religion, it’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child and it’s sinning against our God.”
Today, Twelfth Circuit Judge James E. Plowman ruled that Cross’s constitutional rights were violated when he was suspended.
Tyson Langhofer is an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the educator. He says no teacher should be punished for simply advocating for the good of their students in a public setting.
“So every teacher should be cheering this decision,” Langhofer told Fox News earlier today, “because school boards have no right to punish teachers simply for speaking at a public forum on a policy that’s being considered by the board.”
According to the attorney, Cross even went to work the next day after making his comments, and there were no problems. “Yet they still suspended him,” says Langhofer. “That’s unconstitutional and that shouldn’t happen.”
ADF contends that with this ruling, the clear message from the court to the school board is “you are not above the law.” And just like everyone else, says the legal group, teachers have First Amendment rights to express their views.
“Loudoun County Public Schools must respect that,” says an ADF press release. “In fact, as public officials, those on the school board have a duty to respect that.”
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
All school boards everywhere need to be held accountable for their actions.
You have a right to believe anything you want,
But you do not have the right to force your beliefs on innocent developing children.
That’s why not only should he get his job back, but those on the board who FIRED HIM< should themselves, be given a pink slip.
About 95% of the public school system needs to be fired.
STARTING with all the union heads!
We need more conservatives running for school board so we can have control over what is taught in our schools.
Exactly.. Thats what a # of us have been saying for years.. WE NEED TO START RUNNING for office in these local elections…
So true. I can be a racist but I can’t force you to be one too. I like John Doe and your Pete smith and that is OK.
Congratulations Tanner from a fellow Virginian. More and more need to do this. This shows we can back them up if we do not relent.
Tanner Cross, you are a true hero of mine and you are a real man, as you did not bow down to the CRT Woke morons / traitors! Thank you for not apologizing to these woke traitors, like some of the lesser people do.
I am a proud agnostic, and I REFUSE to use their made up ‘gender specific pronoun’ nonsense..
We need more people who refuse to apologize for not being woke!!!
Children are very suggestible. If more influential adults in their lives and that includes teachers as well as parents gently affirmed the child’s true sex as marked by XX or XY chromosomes in every cell of his or her body, there would be fewer “gender-confused” people. No one encourages kids to continue believing they can fly and it’s just as wrong to encourage them to think they can change sex because that way lies danger as well – mutilating surgery and harmful hormones predisposing to cancer in the long run.
I lived in northern Virginia for a while back in the 1980s, not far from Loudon County. It’s really sickening to see how sissified and leftist the place has become! Hard to believe they had two Republican congressmen back then. Thank the Federal employee unions for creating this mess!
This is all cause of the DC swamp, expanding INTO northern virgina…
I WOULD HOPE, AND SUGGEST THAT THIS TEACHER SUES THIS INCOMPETENT SCHOOL BOARD FOR MILLIONS. These pathetic public schools, controlled by a bunch of weirdly elected dorks, are a disgrace to this country. that is probably why many, many parents are taking their children out of these decrepit schools, and transferring them to either a charter school or a private school. And by doing this transfer, their children ARE getting a much better education, without all the lib bs that goes with a public one.
SUE them individually, rather than AS the board, so that way, its THEM WHO have to pay out of their own pockets, NOT WE THE tax victims.
Teachers are there to teach our children two things: What is known to be true and what is known to be fantasy. The truth is what has been proven by fact finding and personal truth is what a person believes in without forcing that unto others. Fantasy is what is conceived to be true but cannot be proven to be a fact.
These days they mix that up, and TEACH fantasy, while IGNORING truth.