Virginia school district determined to punish Christian teacher who spoke out against transgender-affirming policies, vows to take case to state Supreme Court



A Virginia school district is determined to punish a Christian physical education teacher who dared to speak out in opposition to the school's new transgender-affirming policies.

Last month, in response to a judge's order reinstating the teacher, Tanner Cross, Loudoun County Public Schools filed an appeal to that decision and vowed to take the case to the Virginia Supreme Court, WUSA-TV reported.

The controversy began in May, when Cross, a teacher at Leesburg Elementary, defiantly but respectfully declared during a school board meeting that he would not "lie" to his students and "defile" God by affirming that "a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa."

Cross's declaration came in response to two new policies set forth by the school district that required all staff to use a student's preferred gender pronouns and permitted transgender students to participate in activities based on their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.

In the speech, Cross made it clear that he loves all of his students but that he "serves God first," and to mislead students about their gender identity would be "against [his] religion."

"It's lying to a child, it's abuse to a child, and it's sinning against our God," he explained.

In response, the school district placed him on administrative leave for engaging in "disruptive" conduct. As part of the suspension, Cross was reportedly barred from school grounds and prohibited from attending any school district events.

But Cross, believing that his constitutional rights to free speech and free exercise of religion had been trampled, fought back with a legal challenge and won. In June, a Virginia judge reinstated Cross, calling the school district's decision to suspend him as "unnecessary and vindictive."

Only days later, however, the school district dug its heels in and filed an appeal, seeking to keep Cross suspended.

"Many students and parents at Leesburg Elementary have expressed fear, hurt, and disappointment about coming to school," the district said in a statement. "While LCPS respects the rights of public-school employees to free speech and free exercise of religion, those rights do not outweigh the rights of students to be educated in a supportive and nurturing environment."

The story, which has now become a back-and-forth saga, has garnered national attention. But the primary toll is laid on the local community.

Fox News reported that during a fiery June 22 board meeting, "numerous residents spoke out in defense of Cross during the public comment portion and urged district officials to stop fighting him in court – calling it a waste of taxpayer money and arguing that their effort is doomed to fail."

Cross is being represented by the religious liberty law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, in the case.

Tanner Cross and Tyson Langhofer on Fox News' 'America Reports' www.youtube.com

House Republican called ‘racist’ during committee hearing as he grilled Biden’s education secretary on critical race theory

House Republican called ‘racist’ during committee hearing as he grilled Biden’s education secretary on critical race theory



Republican members of the House Committee on Education and Labor are demanding a public apology after Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) was called a "racist" during a virtual House committee hearing Thursday.

The slanderous accusation was hurled at Good as he questioned Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about critical race theory and aspects of the New York Times' heavily criticized "1619 Project" being taught in schools. While Good was speaking, someone shouted "racist!" and New Jersey Democratic Rep. Donald Norcross' screen appeared.

Good continued to speak, seemingly unaware of the interruption. He pressed Cardona on whether the Biden administration planned to "nationalize a culture war that started in Virginia," referring to Tuesday's raucous Loudoun County school board meeting where an "unlawful assembly" was declared and one man was arrested after a huge crowd of parents protested the "indoctrination" of their children.

Cardona said states and school districts have the responsibility for deciding what to include in their curriculums, but that "the culturally relevant pedagogy is critically important for students to feel engaged, and part of a school community. And I have confidence in our educators across the country to get it right."

Good later told CNN that he wasn't aware of what happened at the time but learned about it afterward.

Norcross' office has not commented on the matter.

"Virginia is proof that the politicized, factually bankrupt curriculum, which Biden's Department of Education seeks to finance and nationalize around the country is a waste of money and is spreading a dangerous ideology," Good said in a statement after the incident.

"Critical race theory is dividing communities and teaching children that their race, not their character, is what defines who they are and their relationship to others. This ideology has no place in our classrooms. The comments in today's congressional hearing is indicative of the division and hate this close-minded ideology promotes."

He also shared video of the incident on social media, urging his supporters to "stand strong against critical race theory!"

This week, parents in Loudoun County had the police called to arrest them for speaking out against Critical Race Th… https://t.co/SdsCDK2FFd

— Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) 1624562511.0

On Thursday evening, Good's Republican colleagues on the Education and Labor Committee sent a letter to Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.), requesting a public apology.

"At today's hearing with Secretary Miguel Cardona, a Member of the Democrat caucus used a smear against a Republican Member, Rep. Bob Good. While we appreciate that you later called the statement 'inappropriate' and 'out of order,' we are extremely concerned that there was no apology made during the hearing for the comment and that it was not withdrawn as is customary when Members engage in unparliamentary personalities and behavior beneath the dignity of this Committee," the letter states.

"Evidence strongly suggests that Rep. Donald Norcross was the Member who slandered Rep. Good, and we expect that Rep. Norcross will abide by the rules of the Committee and House of Representatives, along with his good conscience, and apologize to Rep. Good publicly. It is our hope that you will work with him to ensure that occurs and that we can move forward with our work in a bipartisan and professional manner. We know you meant it when you engaged with Ranking Member Foxx about the need for strict adherence to decorum rules during our organizing meeting so that we could continue to disagree, sometimes strongly and passionately, without the need to be disagreeable."

'Shame on you!': 1 arrest, 1 injury after school board shuts down public comment, declares 'unlawful assembly' — and parents are furious



One man was arrested and another person was hurt at a raucous Loudoun County (Virginia) School Board meeting Tuesday, WRC-TV reported.

What's the background?

The district and its board — as well as parents of students — have made numerous national headlines recently over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching of critical race theory, "pornographic" content in assigned books, and LGBTQ issues. Furthermore, an elementary school teacher — a Christian — was suspended for voicing opposition to the district's transgender-affirming policies and then reinstated by a judge's order. And a 14-year-old student went viral after blasting the board for putting her in danger by allowing transgender students to use girls' locker rooms.

And it all came to a head at Tuesday's meeting, which featured high security — state troopers and county sheriff's deputies — due to death threats against school board members, WRC reported.

What happened?

A huge crowd of parents at the meeting — furious over critical race theory and policies surrounding transgender students — held up signs saying "We the parents stand up" and "Education not indoctrination," the station said, adding that they also chanted and even sang the national anthem.

Image source: WRC-TV video screenshot

Former state Sen. Richard Black said the board got angry and shut down public comment after he blasted members over their controversial policies:

The LCPS shut down the public input after the audience erupted in applause at the end of my speech. Hundreds of pa… https://t.co/3RMID2yLmQ

— Senator Dick Black (@SenRichardBlack) 1624407443.0

Black did not mince words: "You retaliated against Tanner Cross by yanking him from teaching for addressing a public hearing of this board. The judge ordered you to reinstate Mr. Cross because if his comments were not protected speech, then free speech does not exist at all. It's absurd and immoral for teachers to call boys 'girls' and girls 'boys.' You're making teachers lie to students, and even kids know that it's wrong. This board has a dark history of suppressing free speech. They caught you red-handed with an enemies list to punish opponents of Critical Race Theory. You're teaching children to hate others because of their skin color, and you're forcing them to lie about other kids' gender. I am disgusted by your bigotry and your depravity."

Black's microphone was cut just before his last words, and the crowd began cheering.

The board unanimously voted to shut down the meeting after repeatedly issuing warnings about decorum and disruptions, WRC said, adding that parents chanted "Shame on you!" and raised their middle fingers.

Nearly 260 people had signed up to speak at the meeting, the station added.

But a school district spokesperson said "the meeting has degenerated" as the board shut it down and ordered people to leave, WRC said.

More from the station:

One man was "acting disorderly and displayed aggressive behavior towards another attendee," the sheriff's office said in a statement. A deputy intervened and the man continued to be disorderly. Deputies tried to take him into custody and he resisted arrest, the sheriff's office said. The man, whose name was not immediately released, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Another man received a summons for trespassing after school officials asked those in attendance to clear the room, the sheriff's office said.

A third person received a minor injury, officials said, without releasing details.

Image source: WRC-TV video screenshot

What did a pair of parents have to say?

A pair of parents told Fox News that fewer than half of those registered to speak actually got a chance to do so, and they both ripped the board.

Amy Jahr told the cable network that it was a "school board meeting on steroids."

"[They were] silencing us every time you tried to speak," she told Fox News. "You try to write emails, they don't answer us. It erupted, and emotions were high tonight, for sure."

Ian Prior added to the cable network that leftists will not prevail.

"They can keep trying, they can keep busing people in or holding rallies outside, but we are not going to stop," he noted to Fox News. "This is the wokest school board in America, and it's also is the worst school board in America, and we are not going to stop until we get a seat at the table."

What did the board chair have to say?

School Board Chair Brenda Sheridan afterward told WRC the board stands with LGBTQ students during Pride Month and will continue to work to make schools equitable.

"We will not back down from fighting for the rights of our students and continuing our focus on equity," she added to the station. "We will continue to work toward making Virginia, specifically Loudoun, the best place to raise a family."

Sheridan also called for a halt to "politically motivated antics" and said "loud voices aiming to make our schools a political battleground will not silence the work for our students," WRC said.

The district has denied repeatedly that critical race theory is being taught in its schools, WJLA-TV reported.

Transgender parent speaks out

Transgender parent Cris Candice Tuck has attended several meetings, WJLA noted.

"At the end of the day, we're very hopeful that the school board is going to continue to do what's right for our students, protect transgender students," Tuck said.

Image source: WRC-TV video screenshot

Tuck in an interview with WRC also seemed disturbed by parents' "violent" behavior at the meeting, saying "they were standing on chairs and throwing things, and we had to go in and ... escort" attendees from the meeting room.

WJLA said the board is set to reconvene Aug. 10 regarding issues discussed Tuesday.

Woman who survived Mao's purge compares critical race theory in US schools to China's Cultural Revolution in scathing speech



Woke leftists have been pushing critical race theory in public education, which has prompted many to compare CRT to cultural Marxism reminiscent of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. One woman who actually survived the decade-long Chinese sociopolitical movement sees frightening similarities between critical race theory and Mao's violent purge. The Chinese-American immigrant skewered a Virginia school board this week for pushing critical race theory on children.

Xi Van Fleet was 6-years-old when the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, and she distinctly remembers how toxic the environment of Mao's Communist China was at the time. She recalls that students and teachers were pitted against each other by hanging posters in "hallways and the cafeteria where students could write criticisms against anyone deemed ideological impure," according to Fox News.

During Tuesday's public meeting for the Loundon County School Board, Van Fleet voiced her concerns over the current "progressive" ideology and parallels to Chairman Mao's genocidal rule that left between 500,000 and 20 million people dead between 1966 and 1976.

"I've been very alarmed by what's going on in our schools," Van Fleet told the school board members. "You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history."

"Growing up in Mao's China, all of this seems very familiar," Van Fleet, who fled from China at the age of 26, said. "The Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people. The only difference is they used class instead of race."

"During the Cultural Revolution, I witnessed students and teachers turn against each other," Van Fleet, whose son graduated from Loudoun High School in 2015, added. "We changed school names to be politically correct."

She recalls that one of the teachers was considered "bourgeoisie" because she "liked to wear pretty clothes." The class warfare caused students to spit on the teacher, "She was covered with spit… and pretty soon it became violence."

"We were taught to denounce our heritage. The Red Guards destroyed anything that is not communist…statues, books and anything else," she continued. "We were also encouraged to report on each other, just like the Student Equity Ambassador program and the bias reporting system."

"This is indeed the American version of the Chinese Communist Cultural Revolution," she said. "The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our school."

Following her scathing speech regarding critical race theory, Van Fleet walked off the stage to applause and cheers from fellow parents.

Watch a brave parent who grew up in Mao’s China point out all of the identical traits b/n the Cultural Revolution a… https://t.co/K0AkdyL8qA

— The Virginia Project UAC (@TVPUAC) 1623264302.0

"I just want Americans to know that their privilege is to be here living in America, that is just the biggest privilege," Van Fleet told Fox News on Wednesday. "I do not think a lot of people understand. They are thinking they are doing the right thing, 'be against racism' sounds really good. But they are basically breaking the system that is against racism."

"We were asked to report if we hear anything about someone saying anything showing that there's a lack of complete loyalty to Mao," she recalled. "There were people reporting their parents, and their parents ended up in jail."

The immigrant from China's Sichuan province said that critical race theory is an effort to transform classrooms into "indoctrination camps."

"To me, and to a lot of Chinese, it is heartbreaking that we escaped communism and now we experience communism here," Van Fleet said.

The Loudon County has been attacked by other parents in recent months.

Last month, parents launched an ad campaign to tackle the school system teaching the critical race theory and oust members who promoted the controversial ideology.

Also in May, a woman slammed the Loudoun County School Board for pushing CRT, and she compared it to a "tactic used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slavery very many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves."

In January, an irate parent lambasted school officials for not reopening schools because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christian physical education teacher, Byron "Tanner" Cross, was placed on administrative leave last month after he delivered a speech that declared "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." Cross was speaking at the Loudoun County school board meeting regarding new transgender policies.

Judge reinstates Christian teacher suspended for opposing transgender policies, calling the school district's actions 'unnecessary and vindictive'



A Virginia judge has reinstated a Christian elementary school teacher who was suspended by his school district after voicing opposition to the district's new transgender-affirming policies.

What are the details?

In a decision issued Tuesday, Judge James E. Plowman Jr. granted Tanner Cross a temporary injunction and ordered that he be immediately reinstated by Loudoun County Public Schools, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal firm representing the teacher.

In the ruling, Plowman called the district's suspension of Cross "unnecessary and vindictive."

Cross, a physical education teacher at Leesburg Elementary School, filed a lawsuit against the district last week after he was placed on administrative leave and barred from school property following a speech he gave at a school board meeting.

During the speech, Cross cited his Christian faith in declaring he refused to "lie" to his students and "defile" God by affirming that "a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa," as would be required by a pair of new "gender-expansive" district rules.

The policies require all district staff to use a student's preferred gender pronouns and permitted transgender students to participate in activities consistent with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.

In a tweet following the court ruling, ADF called the news "massive victory for free speech."

BREAKING: Tanner Cross, a Virginia elementary school teacher and ADF client who was suspended for raising concerns… https://t.co/Vj24sv211n

— Alliance Defending Freedom (@AllianceDefends) 1623164477.0

ADF founder and CEO Michael Farris added in a statement: "Nobody should be punished for expressing concern about a proposed government policy, especially when the government invites comment on that policy. For that reason, we are pleased at the court's decision to halt Loudoun County Public Schools' retaliation against Tanner Cross while his lawsuit continues. Educators are just like everybody else — they have ideas and opinions that they should be free to express."

What else?

The district had argued that it wasn't Cross' speech that led to his suspension; rather, it was the fact that his speech supposedly caused a disruption at the school.

But upon investigating the matter, the court found minimal evidence to back up the district's claim, noting that just six parents called into the district airing grievances.

Besides, the court ruled, Cross' speech was constitutionally protected because he was "speaking as a citizen, not in his official capacity" and "during non-working hours" at "a forum where public comment was invited."

"It is further apparent that the subject matter upon which the Plaintiff spoke can only be described as a 'matter of public concern,'" Plowman wrote.

Here's more on the case:

Fox News Special Report - Mike Emanuel Reports on Tanner Cross www.youtube.com

Pastor targeted after daring to speak out about school's transgender policies: 'They are emotionally abusing our children'



Democratic Party members in Loudoun County, Virginia, targeted a local pastor last week after he dared to speak out against the school district's abusive and destructive treatment of children through new transgender-affirming policies.

What happened?

Pastor Gary Hamrick of Cornerstone Chapel voiced strong opposition to the school board's actions last Sunday, calling the new implementation of "gender-expansive" rules a form of emotional child abuse and the perpetuation of lies, the Daily Wire reported.

From the pulpit, Hamrick also spoke out in defense of a district elementary teacher, Tanner Cross, who was recently suspended by the board for publicly declaring he would not "lie" to his students and "defile" God by affirming that "a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa," as required by the new policies.

The policies require all Loudoun County Public Schools faculty and staff to use students' preferred gender pronouns and permit transgender students to participate in activities based on their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.

"The school board — some of them, not all — some of them are not doing their duty to protect, let alone educate our children," Hamrick said. "And they are subjecting them to sexually explicit material ... and they are already talking about introducing racially divisive curriculum, they are emotionally abusing our children by perpetuating the lie about gender confusion when they affirm pronouns that are contrary to biology, reality, and the beautiful design of God. So, they need to be held accountable and it's time to step up."

Hamrick reportedly backed efforts to recall six of the "troublesome" board members, who he said were pushing a "progressive, liberal, and Marxist ideology."

What else?

Incensed, the Loudoun County Democratic Committee issued a statement slamming Hamrick's comments as "inflammatory and insidious."

Making peculiar mention of potential "consequences" and "violence," the Democrats demanded that the pastor "recant" his political statements.

The Loudoun County Democrats call on Leesburg Pastor Gary Hamrick to recant his inflammatory remarks accusing Schoo… https://t.co/ZIYH8p2YRc

— Loudoun Democrats (@LoudounDems) 1622412000.0

"We are deeply concerned about the consequences of such rhetoric, having witnessed a recent rise in threats to the safety of the Loudoun School Board members," the statement read. "Furthermore, this irresponsible accusation of child abuse minimizes and tarnishes the people and organizations that seek to protect our children."

"We call on Pastor Gary Hamrick to recant his allegations due to the libelous and inflammatory nature of the remarks. Unfounded statements such as these not only hurt our community that he is meant to serve but have dangerous ramifications for the incitement of violence," the Democrats continued.

Anything else?

One school board member, Juli Briskman, joined the Democrats in demanding that Hamrick recant his message and "discontinue the unethical use of his church and pulpit for political messaging."

In response to the demands, Hamrick told CBN News that he was simply "telling the truth" and won't back away from his comments.

"We're doing a disservice to our children when we lie to them about what gender they are," he said. "It defies biology, reality, and the design of God. If the school board would just stick with the basic elements of reading and writing, I wouldn't have to speak up."

Cross, the suspended teacher, has filed a lawsuit against the school board.

Cornerstone Chapel LIVE_11:45 AM Service youtu.be