FFLC Secures Religious Victory for Fairfax Teacher

The Founding Freedoms Law Center, in partnership with America First Legal, successfully represented a teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), Ashley Pak, to defend her free speech and religious freedom against government coercion. After our attorneys drafted a demand letter for her, the nation’s 10th largest school district backed down and agreed to accommodate Ms. Pak’s religious convictions.

Like we are seeing in numerous other school districts across the Commonwealth, FCPS was seeking to force Ms. Pak to undergo special training on “LGBTQ” issues, including FCPS’s radical transgender policy (which is in clear violation of state law), which required her to interactively engage with the materials and then affirmatively agree to fully comply with their LGBTQ policies. But as a Christian, Pak simply could not do that in good conscience.

After receiving our letter, thankfully, FCPS wisely decided to respect her religious convictions and accommodate her. While this is a good outcome, sadly, Ashley Pak’s story is just the latest example in woke Virginia school districts where the government seems to forget that its employees have constitutional rights – until, that is, attorneys like ours step in and firmly remind them of their legal obligations.

What we have seen, though, is that when our legal team steps in to defend teachers like Ms. Pak, schools and other employers often back down before we have to file suit. That’s exactly what happened in another county when we defended a teacher with the same issue about a year ago.

Of course, none of this would be possible without our generous supporters who believe in our mission and see the value of what we are doing for folks everyday across our Commonwealth. If you are inspired by Ashley’s story and our role in her success, please consider contributing financially to our work today.