A Christian teacher has been banned from the profession for “misgendering” a pupil in a case believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.
Joshua Sutcliffe, 33, was ruled by the Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA) to have failed to treat a pupil with “dignity and respect”. He was also found to have failed to protect the pupil’s wellbeing when he did not use the preferred pronouns of a girl who identified as a boy.
Mr Sutcliffe, a former maths teacher at The Cherwell School, a state secondary in Oxford, admitted he did not use the pupil’s preferred pronouns when he praised a group of pupils during a maths lesson by stating, “well done girls”. He claimed that this was not intentional and that he apologised immediately.
The TRA found it was “more probable than not” that he publicly referred to the transgender pupil using female pronouns on other occasions while working at the school between 2015 and 2018, which Mr Sutcliffe denied.
As well as the allegations of misgendering a pupil, Mr Sutcliffe was found guilty of misconduct for expressing his views against gay marriage when questioned by a pupil, and for failing to “consider the potential impact” on his pupils, particularly those who may be from the LGBT+ community, of a statement that being gay was wrong.
Part of education is finding out that views diverge on a number of matters, no?
Incidentally, I found out yesterday that it’s perfectly legal to racially discriminate against white people in the British workplace… thanks to the Equalities Act (lol) 2010 the Tories somehow never got around to repealing.
Pro tip: they’re never going to repeal it, so smart whites (yeah I know) should be trying to get whiteness added to the list of “protected characteristics” instead. Far harder to argue against the idea that white people should also be protected from unfair discrimination.
No, smart whites should be trying to repeal the tories’ existence as a viable political party, shortly followed by doing the same to the labour party. Watching them leave turds like the equalities act on the statute book helps, not hinders this goal.
When I was teaching in F.E. back in the 1980s and early 90s, there were sometimes odd little androgynous students who turned up at the beginning of the year. It was bloody terrifying until you worked out what sex they were. They always seemed to wear baggy clothes and have names like “Sam” or “Jo/e”. I was only trying to avoid the social embarrassment of calling a he “she” or vice-versa, so today when your entire professional future depends on getting it right it must be even worse.
Steve
I think claiming to be a gyppo would get you protected status.
BiW – yes, I agree, but achievable goals.
There’s two ways to go about this:
* John Bull in a china shop
* Softly softly catchee whitey
Our institutions have excellent defences against anybody tackling them head on. Very easy to paint you as a swivel eyed fruitcake who is against ‘Equality’, or just jail you if you get a bit too Tommy Robinsony.
The subtler approach would be to force the Blob to live up to its own claims. If everyone is “protected” by the Equalities Act, there’s no more space to legally disadvantage whites, men, heterosexuals, Christians and the English.
Harriet Harman’s rage-fueled stroke: priceless.
Otto – I like dags, but I’m serious you guys: nobody is protected until everybody is protected.
Steve, dunno why the Tories would repeal a law they devised? I’m sure the current clown circus thinks it doesn’t go far enough…
I wonder how many experienced teachers have fled the profession because of this insanity? I also wonder if Plod has noted “A non-crime hate incident”?
“I wonder how many experienced teachers have fled the profession because of this insanity? ”
Many… And many with actual experience/qualifications in [topic] that could be trained to become teachers and lessen the Shortage will flat-out refuse to do so because of these ClownWorld shenanigans.
And that’s for Clogland.. UK is far, far worse for this kind of ….well… bullcrap, so I can only imagine less incentive for actual competent people to entertain the notion of adding “teacher” to their resumé.
‘If everyone is “protected” by the Equalities Act, there’s no more space to legally disadvantage whites, men, heterosexuals, Christians and the English.’
Of course, that’s exactly why they won’t do it, Steve. The whole point of the act is to legally disadvantage all those you mention.
Think of the referendum on the Voice here in Oz. The abos already have equality. The screamers—-oops activists wish to establish an aristocracy based on race. The most important point is that whites should be on the bottom.
And they gave some little shit or bunch of shits the right to stuff any teacher they don’t like. Pavlik Morosov comes to mind.
Bboy – The whole point of the act is to legally disadvantage all those you mention
Of course.
The purpose of demanding they add white people to the list of protected characteristics is to make this explicit rather than implicit.
“Labour REFUSES to give white English people the same rights as people who just arrived on a dinghy” is a stronger talking point than fulminating about the finer points of a piece of legislation most people aren’t interested in.
Our enemies claim to want Equality. Well, let’s rub their noses in Equality. Rub them good and hard, until they’re crying from all the Equality.
See also: “hate speech” laws, which can be easily repurposed to cause difficulties for racist Indian academics at Cambridge and the like.
The teacher would have been better served by just being hopelessly incompetent. It would have taken them years to sack him, if they even could.
I’m pretty certain that the PE teacher at my all boys school called us “girls” on more than one occasion. Should I get him sacked and look for compo?
This was in the 1960s so we might need to exhume him first.
Seriously, why was he discussing “gay marriage” and sexuality with pupils if he was a maths teacher? Has the maths curriculum changed that much?
Since when was “girls” a pronoun?
@Tony in London well binary, you know, number representation, math related?
The rugby master at my public school occasionally called us ladies during training when he deemed our degree of commitment to be less than 100%.
No one ever argued with him.
If he was talking to the backs he was being strictly accurate if, perhaps, a bit too polite.
If a Christian is a bit gauche he’s sacked. If a wokester goes full Nazi or Bolshevik he/she/it is praised.
I do not like that incentive structure.
@ TomJ
The scrum-half in my year was a destructive amateur boxer – maybe your lot were soft but our’s weren’t
Steve. The woodworking teacher in Canada who wore absolutely humongous fake tits was following your tactic of playing them at their own game. Everyone with any sense knew. But the school couldn’t do anything because he would make exactly the same claim as any other tranny, and they would be forced to stick to their policy.
On repealing laws, have any laws actually been repealed in the UK since 1904?
Henry VIII’s Succession To The Crown Act has been repealed.
SadButMadLad – And it was all done in the best possible taste.
Let’s bomb Russia!
@Sam Vara – “I was only trying to avoid the social embarrassment of calling a he “she” or vice-versa”
It seems that this teacher was quite different. He not only referred to the pupil as a girl, but went on TV where he did it again. His denials of doing it consistently at school seem not credible to me, considering his statement quoted in the article, “I refuse to go against my conscience”. So it seems that he has strong views and is determined to impose them on his pupils, even if that is needlessly embarrasing to them. Even if someone thinks the whole transgender thing is nonsense, it’s still possible to be polite and refer to pupils in the manner they wish for.
“Refering to” has the subject as a third party, so how would they know what the conversation between the first and second party contained, unless the constraints of that conversation were breached. So, either somebody evesdropped, or somebody told tales. Either way, this is evidence gained by breaching a transaction, and Pressdram applies.
Charles – it’s still possible to be polite and refer to pupils in the manner they wish for
Yes, that’s what a 15 year old girl on the pipeline to getting her tits sliced off, her testosterone-ravaged body irreversibly sterilised by her early 20’s, with all the mental illness, early onset osteoporosis, extreme ugliness, lonely grief and unsightly haircuts that entails needs from responsible adults in a duty of care to her…
Politeness.
Trudeau (mk I) did it to Canada in his 1982 Constitution, and it hasn’t worked out all that well. If you can avoid it in Oz, you would be well advised to do so.
dcardno
As you’ve guessed, I’ll be voting ‘no’.
@BiFR
On repealing laws, have any laws actually been repealed in the UK since 1904?
Possibly the ones on gayers, suiciding yourself, and the more recent one on bankers being permitted to be compensated in bonuses.
However, it’s not many and it would be interesting to have a SWI style constitutional referendum on say whether one law should be repealed for every new one created. Obvs I’d vote yes to that one.
“Even if someone thinks the whole transgender thing is nonsense, it’s still possible to be polite and refer to pupils in the manner they wish for.”
So, if the child starts insisting that the teacher henceforth refers to them as “Herr Hitler”….
Why is it polite to encourage the pretensions of narcissists and the delusions of the mentally ill?
Dear Mr Worstall
“Part of education is finding out that views diverge on a number of matters, no?”
Not any more.
DP
Part of having a job that involves caring for children is finding out that expressing your divergent views might need to be balanced against the duty you have to the well-being of those children. Which is why we might consider that “ failing to “consider the potential impact” on his pupils, particularly those who may be from the LGBT+ community, of a statement that being gay was wrong.” could have a lot more to do with this than misgendering.