The UK High Court has dismissed an appeal by a Christian maths teacher in England who was fired for misgendering a student and was barred from teaching, reports Breaking News.
After a regulator judged Joshua Sutcliffe guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” during his employment at The Cherwell School in Oxford between 2015 and 2018, Sutcliffe attempted to contest a May 2023 restriction order.
The ruling, according to Mr Sutcliffe’s attorneys, “unjustifies interference” with his freedom of expression and religion.
However, the UK government said that the instructor who was banned had not been able to “distinguish between his activities as a preacher and his role as a teacher,” reports Breaking News.
Mr. Justice Pepperall denied the appeal in a written decision on Thursday, finding that Mr. Sutcliffe “fails to understand or accept the harm that he caused vulnerable children in his class.”
The judge rejected the claims that the human rights of the suspended instructor had been violated, finding “no merit” in them.
According to him, Mr. Sutcliffe did not agree “that his professional duties to treat children with dignity and respect and to safeguard their wellbeing might have to be balanced against his right to manifest and express his religious convictions,” reports Breaking News.
“With this ruling every teacher is at risk if they share their beliefs and views in the classroom,” Mr. Sutcliffe said following the verdict.
Previously, a panel from the UK Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found that Mr. Sutcliffe’s failure to use his “preferred pronoun” in class and during his appearance on ITV’s This Morning constituted a lack of “dignity and respect” for a transgender student, reports Breaking News.
It also revealed that, in asserting that God had prevented someone from becoming gay because it was sinful, Mr. Sutcliffe had neglected to ensure the safety of the students.
The panel also determined that, while attending St. Aloysius’ College in Islington, north London, in 2018, he failed to present a fair analysis of a movie that was shown during form class and discussed how males are “not masculine enough.”
The judge said in his 24-page ruling: “This case is not about a teacher who accidentally failed to follow a school’s policy of referring to a transgender pupil by the child’s chosen pronouns or even about a teacher who reconciled his religious convictions with such policy by choosing to avoid pronouns altogether and referring to the child by name,” reports Breaking News.
“Rather, it is about a teacher who deliberately used female pronouns to refer to a transgender male pupil both in the classroom and then on national television in such a way that he would be “outed” without any apparent regard for a vulnerable child who was thereby caused significant distress,” he added, reports Breaking News.
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