An 8-year-old boy was shut down by his school teacher when he tried to talk about the Bible during his class show and tell, says his parent.
John Ellis, a church elder in Arlington, Virginia, claims his son was hushed up by the teacher at the unnamed school when he tried to tell his classmates about the story of Daniel from the Bible.
In a column on PJ Media, Ellis says he did not know that his son, who is in the second grade, had taken his Bible to school for the show and tell until after the event.
When he asked his son how it went, he says his son told him: 'The teacher stopped me from speaking and went on to the next person. I didn't get to tell them about Daniel.'
He said his son had been left confused by the teacher's actions.
'You see, my son had been reading the book of Daniel and wanted to tell his friends about it. It was important to him. What he didn't realize is that the Bible, no matter how important to his identity, is verboten in the brave new world of progressive tolerance,' wrote Ellis.
'The Bible and those who take God's Word seriously are not allowed a platform in leftist America. My son learned that the hard way last Tuesday. His disappointment is only eclipsed by his confusion as to why his teacher wouldn't let him finish.'
Ellis questioned why trans beliefs are being accommodated by the Virginia school system but not Bible stories and Christian beliefs after a French teacher at West Point High School was fired for not using a trans male student's preferred pronouns.
Peter Vlaming said he continued to use the feminine pronouns because it would go against his conscience to refer to the student, who was born female, as a male.
He was fired last week in a unanimous decision by the school board on the grounds of discrimination.
Superintendent Laura Abel said in a statement, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 'That discrimination then leads to creating a hostile learning environment. And the student had expressed that. The parent had expressed that.'
Vlaming's attorney, Shawn Voyles, told the newspaper that the policy had gone against the constitutional rights of his client.
'One of those rights that is not curtailed is to be free from being compelled to speak something that violates your conscience,' said Voyles.
Ellis criticised the inconsistency in the school system when it comes to how children's identities are accommodated.
'It's stunning to consider the contrast between the hyperbolic language and extreme actions taken to ensure that one child's identity is catered to and how my son was swiftly shut down when he wanted to briefly talk about a part of his identity that's important to him. It's also frightening,' he said.
Students at the high school responded to Vlaming's sacking by staging a walk out in protest.
The protest was organised by West Point High junior Forrest Rohde, who said it was not about the transgender student but the actions of the school board in 'trying to force the teacher to conform to their ideologies with the threat of removal from the school'.
'The child is going through a lot,' Rohde said, according to NBC12. 'We shouldn't be directing this towards her, we should be directing this towards the school board.'
Fellow junior Zachary Gonzalez, who took part in the protest said: 'I feel like everyone should have the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion as well.'
