A Virginia County school has agreed to permanently reinstate a physical education teacher after he was suspended for refusing to refer to transgender students by their preferred pronouns.
“Just today, the court issued a final injunction permanently preventing the Loudoun County Public School Board from sanctioning me for freely expressing my views,” Byron “Tanner” Cross told reporters after Monday’s settlement. Fox News reported.
“I can now confidently continue teaching at Leesburg Primary School without fear of retribution for expressing my views,” he added.
In June, the county said it would appeal a judge’s decision to reinstate Cross and take the fight to the state Supreme Court after Federal Judge James Plowman ruled that the Leesburg Elementary school gym teacher can return to work.
Cross, an outspoken Christian, sparked outrage at a school meeting on May 25, when he spoke out against proposed policy 8040 and did not assert that “a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa” and was later suspended from the job.
The policy requires teachers to use the child’s preferred gender pronouns, to open activities to students according to their gender identity, to allow children to access facilities that conform to their gender identity and to be trained in matters relating to LGBTQ+ students.
He said at the time: “I am a teacher, but I serve God first, and I will not assert that a biological boy can be a girl, and vice versa, because it is against my religion.” “It is a lie to a child, it is abuse to a child, and it is a sin to our Lord.”
“We are very pleased that Tanner will be able to continue to serve his students in light of this settlement,” Tyson Langofer, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal group representing Cross, said in a statement Monday.
Meanwhile, Cross and other teachers plan to continue defying the 8040 policy in court, where Cross had previously been given temporary injunctions forcing the district to return him to his job.
Alliance Defending Freedom was previously allowed to amend its complaint to add new claims against the policy and include history teacher Monica Gill and English teacher Kim Wright alongside Cross.
“Freedom of speech and religion includes the freedom not to speak messages that conflict with our core beliefs, and public schools should not require teachers to personally endorse a belief with which they disagree, but that is exactly what the 8040 Policy does,” Gill told Fox News. on Monday. “It forces teachers to say things that are untrue and harmful to students.”
At the press conference after settlementShe said: Words have meaning. If teachers have to use a pronoun for a student that doesn’t align with his biological sex, they convey to that student that sex is fluid, which is not true. This goes against biology, science, and reality.”
A spokesperson for the school district told Fox News he does not comment on the pending litigation. School board members did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.
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