Virginia school board bans compelled use of trans pronouns

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, January 01, 2026

A major school district in Virginia has adopted new policies to prevent the forced use of trans-identified students’ and teachers’ chosen pronouns, as teachers and students in districts across the United States have faced repercussions for referring to individuals using names and pronouns that match their sex. 

At a Dec. 15 school board meeting, the Chesapeake Public Schools Board of Education in Chesapeake voted 7-2 to amend the school district’s policy manual to clarify that all employees are expected to “refrain from providing to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex" and “refrain from compelling any staff member to address any employee or refer to any employees in a manner that violates the staff member’s constitutionally protected rights." 

The changes to the school district’s general expectations for employees also include a provision stating that employees should not “compel any student to address any employee or refer to any employee in a manner that violates the student’s constitutionally protected rights.” After nearly an hour of public comments, most of which were in opposition to the policy changes, the board voted to approve. 

Chesapeake Public Schools serves more than 39,000 students.

Angela Swygert, the chair of the Chesapeake Public Schools Board of Education, noted at the meeting that “the voluntary use of alternative pronouns and titles by employees amongst their peers is not prohibited by this policy."

“A person who does not fundamentally agree with the use of alternative pronouns and titles cannot be compelled to use them," Swygert said.

The school board's vote drew a strong rebuke from the editorial board of the left-leaning local newspaper The Virginian-Pilot, writing in an op-ed that the school board was "proudly proclaiming its intolerance" by prohibiting "the use of pronouns that differ from employees’ birth certificates." The newspaper accused the school board of "succumbing to trans panic and promoting discrimination against a marginalized group."

"They may be cheering themselves today, but this ignoble act puts them firmly on the wrong side of history," the editorial board wrote. 

"The effect of that policy is clear: It will single out transgender teachers, staff and students for embarrassment and ridicule. What school officials claim was a measure to improve tolerance in schools instead rips away the right of people in the district to be referred in the way they prefer. It is a clumsy attempt to erase the reality of transgender staff and students in favor of a narrow, outdated view of gender identity."

Teachers across Virginia and the U.S. have faced professional consequences for declining to refer to trans-identified students using their self-declared names and pronouns due to their deeply held beliefs about gender and sexuality. 

Last year, the West Point School Board in Virginia reached a $575,000 settlement with former French teacher Peter Vlaming, who was fired in 2018 for declining to refer to a trans-identified female student using male pronouns because of his religious beliefs.

Pamela Ricard, a math teacher in Kansas, found herself in a similar situation in 2022 when she was suspended because she did not refer to a trans-identified student by their preferred name. She reached a $95,000 settlement with the school district later that year.

Several states have passed laws prohibiting schools from forcing teachers to use trans-identified students’ self-declared pronouns, specifically Tennessee, Wyoming and Idaho. At the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office earlier this year, vowing to withhold federal funds from public schools that engage in what he referred to as the “indoctrination” of students with “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.” 

Students have also been punished for failing to refer to teachers by their self-declared pronouns. In 2023, two students in Glendale, California, were suspended for five days because they “misgendered” a teacher.