(LifeSiteNews) — Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has given a Virginia teacher her job back after firing her for dissenting from transgender orthodoxy thanks to the intervention of religious liberty law firm Liberty Counsel.
As detailed in a November letter from Liberty Counsel to the district, the teacher (whose identity is being withheld) applied for a substitute teaching position and was given her first assignment the following month. But just two hours into her first day on September 15, she “was escorted out of the building” by the district’s human resources director. The superintendent determined she was a “problem” due to political opinions and religious beliefs she had expressed on social media, and the school board removed her from the personnel list in a closed session.
In its letter, Liberty Counsel argued that the teacher’s removal violated her rights to freedom of speech and religious expression under the Virginia Constitution, the Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Virginia non-discrimination law, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, U.S. Supreme Court precedent specifically recognizing the rights of teachers to express their own opinions when speaking as citizens outside of their official duties, and MCPS’s own policies prohibiting viewpoint discrimination and protecting educators’ right to political activity while off-duty.
“In light of the above authority and facts, we seek 1) the immediate reinstatement of (TEACHER) as a substitute teacher with MCPS,” the letter demanded. ‘We further request that 2) MCPS compensate (TEACHER) the lost wages for the 2 days per week for each of the nine weeks (and counting) she would have worked, while she has been unjustly barred from work due to her protected religious beliefs and religious and political speech.” Liberty Counsel gave the district until December 21 to comply.
On January 30, Liberty Counsel announced in a press release that MCPS has restored the teacher, who is believed to be the only substitute treated in such a manner by the district.
“The First Amendment guarantees a teacher’s right to speak according to his or her religious beliefs and political values,” Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver said. “The school district corrected a potentially costly mistake. Teachers have a right to express their conscience and religious beliefs in their private capacity without fear of retribution from their employer.”
Virginia has been a hot spot for disputes over the state of public education, especially since Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin was elected in 2021 in large part due to a parental revolt over education and Democrats’ hostility to parental rights.
On his first day in office, he issued a series of executive actions, including a ban on promoting Critical Race Theory in public schools and a request for an investigation of the Loudoun County School District over allegations it covered up the rape of a female student by a gender-confused male. His administration went on to push model policies to ensure parents’ ability to access, review, and alternatives to sex-related educational materials, as well as to require students to be addressed by their legal names and actual sex, and to use biological sex to determine which bathrooms, lockers, or athletic teams they are allowed to access.
The indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on race, sexuality, and other left-wing agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to athletic and restroom policy to drag events to classroom materials to even socially “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas regardless of their treatment of or rapport with gender-confused students.