Harrisonburg teachers cite faith in suit asserting right to be able to call trans kids what they want

The Arizona-based far-right legal group that is helping teachers sue school districts over their rights to call kids what they want is using the $575,000 judgment in the case against the West Point School Board to buttress its arguments in a similar case in Harrisonburg.

This is all thanks to the push by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to inject partisan politics into K-12 public education.

“As the Virginia Supreme Court recently affirmed, school boards may not compel an employee, over her objection, to refer to a student by pronouns that don’t correspond with the student’s sex,” said Vincent Wagner, a senior counsel with the Alliance for Defending Freedom.

This ADF group is representing Harrisonburg schoolteachers Deborah Figliola, Kristine Marsh and Laura Nelson, who filed a lawsuit in 2022 claiming that the Harrisonburg School Board is violating Virginia’s Free Speech Clause and the Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act by compelling them to speak a message to which they object.

The message to which they object: using the right pronouns to refer to trans kids.

That’s it; that’s the lawsuit.

The school board “is trying to force Deborah, Kristine, and Laura, teachers whom we represent in this case, to violate their religious beliefs by compelling them to use pronouns inconsistent with students’ sex and prohibiting them from notifying parents or seeking their consent,” Wagner said.

“Virginia’s Constitution and other laws contain robust free-speech and free-exercise protections for public employees, and let teachers do their jobs. Because of those protections, we urge the court to rule for our clients,” Wagner said.

The crux of the case: the plaintiffs are arguing that the free-speech and free-exercise rights of teachers outweigh the free-speech and free-exercise rights of trans kids.

And because of Gov. Youngkin, and a backward-thinking state Supreme Court, these teachers and their far-right hired legal guns can bludgeon trans kids and their rights.

Basically, they’ve weaponized the law and the power of the state government to favor the rights of members of a religious group over those of a persecuted minority.

This is life in ‘Murica, folks.