UK Teacher Charged With Misconduct After ‘Misgendering’ Trans Student

Fact checked
teacher

A UK teacher has been accused of “misgendering” one of his transgender pupils during a misconduct hearing.

Joshua Sutcliffe, a mathematics teacher and a devout Christian, has been accused of engaging in conduct that “negatively affected pupils” by allegedly “misgendering” one of his students.

He was suspended from the school in Oxford in 2017 for allegedly failing to use a pupil’s preferred pronouns on several occasions due to his religious beliefs.

Breitbart reports: Sutcliffe is the latest school teacher to be put under scrutiny over his religious beliefs conflicting with transgenderism, with an Irish teacher even being jailed last year following a row erupting over his refusal to use the preferred pronouns of one pupil.

According to a report by The Guardian, Britain’s Teaching Regulation Agency has accused Sutcliffe of “misgendering” one of his pupils multiple times during a misconduct panel on the issue.

The maths teacher is also accused of endangering a child’s anonymity after he went on a talk show to discuss his subsequent dismissal from a school in Oxford over the trans row, with the body claiming that his presence on the programme “made it likely” the pupil involved would be identified.

Sutcliffe has denied the charges of misconduct, with his legal representative, Michael Phillips, arguing that his client is entitled to freedom of speech and cannot be compelled to say something he does not agree with.

Phillips also disputed the claims made against Sutcliffe, saying that the teacher had only misgendered the child once within their presence, and had apologised for doing so.

The legal counsel also argued that there was no evidence that using the child’s preferred pronouns would benefit them, putting into question the charge of misconduct.

“There is no evidence it was in Pupil A’s best interest to have preferred pronouns used,” Phillips remarked. “It was their wish but it doesn’t follow there was ethical justification for this.”

An accusation that Sutcliffe shared his views on same-sex marriage during a maths class was also rejected, with the teacher instead saying that he only shared those views during a Bible study session he set up in the school.

The hearing continues.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.