A Florida judge ruled in favor of a Christian teacher who lost her job after telling a transgender student that “My God made no mistakes” while refusing to use the child’s “preferred pronouns.”
In a footnote to his Monday ruling, Administrative Law Judge John Van Laningham characterized transgenderism as a “new secular faith,” News Service of Florida reported.
“Advocates of transgenderism can be as doctrinaire as religious zealots these days,” the judge wrote, according to the news outlet. “As this case demonstrates, adhering to the traditional view that gender is biologically determined can get a person excommunicated, from a job in this instance.”
The teacher, Yojary E. Mundaray, was fired in June of 2020 from her job teaching science at Jose de Diego Middle School in the Miami-Dade County School District.
The incident over which she was terminated took place six months earlier, in December 2019, NSF reported.
Mundaray reprimanded the student for “routine classroom horseplay,” after which the child approached the teacher and asked to be addressed with masculine pronouns because she identified as a male.
“Mundaray said she could not do that because of her Christian beliefs, which led the student to reply, ‘I think God made a mistake,’” Van Laningham wrote, according to the report.
The report added: “The teacher then replied, ‘I’m a Christian, and my God made no mistakes.’”
The student complained to the administration, which investigated and determined that her “personal conduct … seriously reduced her effectiveness as an employee of the school district,” the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported.
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Van Laningham, however, ruled that Mundaray was entitled to her beliefs.
“Given that Mundaray made no attempt to force [the student] to accept, conform to, or even acknowledge any Christian doctrine, the allegation that she imposed her personal religious views on [the student] is untrue,” the judge wrote, according to the Daily Mail.
“At most, Mundaray expressed her view that God is inerrant, which is about as anodyne a theological statement as one could make.
“Further, she did so only in defense of the God she worships. Surely, such cannot constitute a disciplinable offense in a country whose foundational principles include religious freedom.”
The judge also pointed out that a recent state law now requires schools to identify students by their biological gender.
“Had the incident … occurred today, instead of three years ago, Mundaray would have been protected against the significant loss she suffered simply for refusing to do what the law now deems false,” Van Laningham wrote.
“The case remains to be concluded, with the Education Practices Commission set to issue a final ruling,” the Daily Mail reported.
