UPDATE: Christian teacher loses High Court appeal after being banned for ‘misgendering’
Joshua Sutcliffe, a Christian maths teacher, lost his High Court appeal case after being banned from teaching for "misgendering" a pupil. The judge said that “just because misgendering a transgender pupil might not be unlawful does not mean that it is appropriate conduct for a teacher.”
On July 25, a High Court judge ruled that Mr Sutcliffe should continue to be banned from the profession indefinitely for refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a girl identifying as a boy.
Mr Justice Pepperall said Mr Sutcliffe had failed to understand “that his right to manifest and express his religious convictions might have to be balanced against his professional duties to treat children with dignity and respect and to safeguard their wellbeing”. He furthermore claimed that by not using preferred pronouns, Mr Sutcliffe had failed to treat the pupil with “dignity and respect” because the girl had “credibly passed for a male and was only known by male pronouns at Cherwell [school].”
The judgement upholds the decision of the Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) to ban Mr Sutcliffe from his profession for 'misgendering' a pupil in school and at ITV’s This Morning, expressing critical views on homosexuality based on his religious beliefs, and showing a video on masculinity in class between 2017 and 2018 (OIDAC reported).
This ruling comes despite the draft transgender guidance for schools, published by the government in December 2023, which said teachers should not be compelled to go against their consciences by using preferred pronouns that a contrary to biological sex.
The judge disregarded this guidance, saying “The draft guidance, which of course postdated these events and the panel’s decision, envisaged that schools would rarely agree to change a pupil’s pronouns but did not purport to suggest that such course would never be appropriate. As the draft made plain, such decisions are complex and are made by schools and not individually by each member of staff according to their own assessment of the merits of the request.”
Sources: BBC, Daily Mail, Christian Concern
Image: at the courtesy of Christian Concern