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Tanner Cross

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The decision also noted that the school system went beyond a normal suspension by also restricting his access to all Loudoun County Public Schools properties, which would include the administration building where the School Board meets. Plowman repeatedly described the action as a “retaliatory suspension” and described decision to announce the suspension in an email sent to the Leesburg Elementary School community as “unnecessary and vindictive.”

The school system was ordered to reinstate Cross to his previous position, a P.E. teacher at Leesburg Elementary School, with the injunction remaining in force until a trial or the end of the year. That trial on Cross’s suspension is not yet scheduled.

Cross was suspended two days after saying at a School Board meeting that, for religious reasons, he would not abide by state-mandated protections for transgender students by not using transgender students’ preferred pronouns. He sued, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nonprofit headed by Michael Farris, who is also a founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association and Patrick Henry College in Purcellville.

In a June 4 emergency hearing to argue for temporary injunction, ADF Attorney Tyson Langhofer said Cross had been retaliated against by the school system for expressing his views to elected officials as a private citizen at a School Board meeting.

“This case is about what makes democracy possible,” Langhofer told the court. And, he said, if the school system was allowed to suspend teachers because of the complaints of a few families of students, “it would eviscerate the rights of teachers.”

“It’s a very dangerous road you don’t want to go down,” Langhofer said, adding that other teachers have already said they now feel they cannot express their views for fear of retaliation. He likened the suspension to a “heckler’s veto,” a concept in constitutional law in which the government unconstitutionally suppresses free speech because of the possibility of a violent reaction by hecklers.

“If the defendant’s position is correct, five families could get any teacher fired across the county,” Langhofer said.

Attorney Stacy Haney, representing the school system, argued that Cross was suspended not because of his statements, but because he expressed an intention not to follow school policy and state law, and because of disruptions at the school after his speech at the School Board. While the School Board was gathering feedback on proposed policies protecting students from discrimination based on gender identity, she pointed out, there is no option for the local School Board not to adopt those policies—they are required by a state law passed in 2020.

Declarations filed by Leesburg Elementary School Principal Shawn Lacey, Interim Assistant Superintendent Lucia Sebastian and Interim Superintendent Scott Ziegler, the school system argued Cross’s speech had caused a disruption in part because five families had written to the school to request their children have no contact with him, as well as pointing to higher suicide rates and mental health problems among transgender students whose gender identity is not affirmed.

They argued Cross was suspended not because of his stated religious beliefs, which he had also previously expressed to the School Board by email, but after a day of disruption at the school.

“The School Board has an interest, and it is a compelling one, to protect all students from harassment and discrimination” and to foster an inclusive learning environment, Haney said.

After the court hearing, Cross and his attorneys rallied to support him at Cornerstone Chapel.

“When the school suspended me, they were sending a message to me and other teachers: they will punish teachers who speak out,” Cross said. “But I know this: LCPS should not require me to violate my conscience and lie to my students, and I care too much for my students to lie to them.”

“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,” ADF CEO Michael Farris stated in a press release after the decision. “Educators are just like everybody else—they have ideas and opinions that they should be free to express. Advocating for solutions they believe in should not cost them their jobs. School officials singled out his speech, offered in his private capacity at a public meeting, as ‘disruptive’ and then suspended him for speaking his mind. That’s neither legal nor constitutional. Dozens of other teachers have shared their beliefs on various policies without retaliation; Tanner deserves to be treated with the same respect.”

A Loudoun County Public Schools spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling. n

“When the school suspended me, they were sending a message to me and other teachers: they will punish teachers who speak out.”

— Tanner Cross

Primary

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After backing out of a talked-about run for the governor’s office, Herring is seeking an historic third term.

Herring is the first Virginia Attorney General to serve two terms since Mary Sue Terry, who resigned in January 1993 to run for governor. If elected a third time, he would be the first person to be elected to Virginia Attorney General for a third term in 76 years, since Abram Penn Staples won his third election in 1945. Staples left the office in 1947 after the General Assembly elected him to the state Supreme Court.

In the General Assembly, Loudouners have backed a challenger to incumbent Del. Ibraheem S. Samirah (D-86), Irene Shin. Absentee ballots and the two 86th District precincts in Loudoun delivered Shin 53.2% of their vote, 304 votes.

Loudoun more readily backed incumbent Kathleen J. Murphy (D-34) over her primary challenger Jennifer M. Adeli, delivering 73% of the Loudoun vote, 1,279 votes, in that district.

Across their districts, Murphy won comfortably with 74.5% of the vote. But Samirah suffered a narrow defeat, with 48.3% of the vote, 3,185 votes, to challenger Irene Shin’s 51.7%, 3,415 votes.

Although Republicans are holding primary elections for House of Delegates seats today, there are no races in Loudoun. Republicans have already selected Glenn Youngkin as their candidate for governor, Winsome Sears for lieutenant governor and Virginia Beach Del. Jason Miyares (R82) for attorney general at a convention in May.

The statewide ballot count continued at press time, although McAuliffe, Herring and Ayala were all already considered the winners. Outside his hometown of Loudoun, Herring’s lead was slimmer. Across the state, with 2572 of 2584 precincts reporting, he has captured 55.9% of votes compared to challenger Del. Jerrauld C. “Jay” Jones (D-98) of Norfolk, who has pulled in 44.1% according to unofficial results from the state Department of Elections. Ayala has a slightly larger margin over the next challenger, with 37.4% of the vote to runner-up S. “Sam” Rasoul’s 24.2% in a seven-way race. And McAuliffe won handily, pulling in 61.8% of the vote in a five-way race. The next contender, Jennifer D. Carroll Foy, had picked up 20.2% n

Renss Greene/Loudoun Now Terry McAuliffe speaks at the creation of a park around the historic Goose Creek Bridge in 2017, during his last term as governor.