Virginia teacher fights school gender policies, stands up for students to ‘speak their mind freely’

Loudoun County, Virginia gym teacher Tanner Cross joined "Fox News Primetime" after he was placed on administrative leave following his vocal opposition to his school’s new gender policies which he says go against his Christian beliefs. 

Cross and his attorney Tyson Langhofer said they have filed a lawsuit claiming his suspension violated his right to free speech.

In an interview with host Ben Domenech, Cross said he was thinking about his students and "other teachers out there" that may be afraid to express their views.

"I invested my whole life into teaching and giving back to the community and whatever I was blessed with I wanted to bless my community with. So it started with students, it will always be about students. It’s also about staff members, every American and all teachers and administrators to just speak their minds freely and be civil."

Domenech, a former resident of Leesburg, Virginia said he was "pretty shocked" to see the reaction Cross received by embracing the beliefs that "virtually every American believed until about 5 minutes ago."

"Here in America, we love our free speech and teachers are just like everybody else. We have political views, we have religious views, and we like to advocate for those views and not be punished for it but it kind of feels like it’s going in that direction," Cross added.

In terms of the case, attorney Langhofer argued the First Amendment is very clear that public schools can’t punish and retaliate against teachers for sharing their beliefs and opinions.

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"The school board invited public comment to a proposed policy and all tanner did was respond to that request and give his opinion and yet he was punished for it. And that shouldn’t be. Both his free speech and his free exercise rights were violated and who’s really advocating for all teachers to be able to have the right to express their opinion without being punished."

Cross concluded by telling Domenech students, families, and people from all over the country have reached out to him. "Everybody has been very nice, and kind of praising what I did."