A settlement has been reached between the Loudoun County, Va. School Board and an elementary school teacher who was suspended for speaking out against being forced to speak untruths about children’s genders, reports Yahoo News.
Leesburg Elementary School teacher Tanner Cross got suspended for speaking out against the county’s pro-transgender Policy 8040 at a school board meeting in May.
Cross said: “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.”
The school board has now settled Cross’s lawsuit by agreeing not to take further action against him, but Cross and other teachers continue to challenge 8040 in court.
Virginia and Loudoun County in particular have become a primary battleground in a new, cold civil war, as conservative parents and teachers butt heads with an increasingly radical, secretive and tyrannical school district and its leadership.
“Just today, the court issued a final order permanently prohibiting the Loudoun County Public School Board from punishing me for freely expressing my views,” Cross told the media after the Nov. 16 settlement. “I can now confidently continue teaching at Leesburg Elementary School without fear of punishment for expressing my views.”
The policy in question forces school staff to refer to students by their preferred pronouns, to let students participate in activities using their preferred gender identity, to allow students access to facilities corresponding to gender identity, and to undergo “training” on dealing with LGBTQ+ students.
In the settlement, the school board, Superintendent Scott Ziegler, and interim Assistant Superintendent Lucia Villa Sebastian agreed to strike any reference to Cross’s suspension from his record, obey an injunction preventing them from retaliating against Cross for his speech against 8040, and to pay $20,000 in legal fees.
