RICHMOND (WINA) – The Virginia Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit dismissed by a lower court by a former West Point High School teacher who refused to use preferred pronouns of a trans student. Peter Vlaming taught French at school — and was fired after referring to a trans student by preferred name, but avoiding using third-person pronouns when referring to that student.

Vlaming’s suit contends he lost his job not because of something he said, but because of what his conscience would not allow him to say. He’s sued the town school board, the superintendent, and the school’s principal and assistant principal. The state supreme court has now reversed and remanded the suit back to the King William County Circuit Court — disagreeing with the lower court’s previous ruling that Vlaming “failed to state legally viable causes of action”.