To think suspending the teacher was extreme?

[LouBlue1507]

A maths teacher has been suspended, probably going to be sacked for accidently calling a trans child a girl whilst referring 'well done girls' to a small group of girls. He apologised for his mistake, but weeks later the parents complained.

I don't think he's helped himself by going to the press and 'This Morning' but for a class of pupils to lose a good teacher over this?

It's obvious that the majority of teachers need training on transgender, gender fluid etc. It's not fair that they are thrown in the deep end with no training what so ever. I bet most don't even know what half of it even means!

If he does get sacked for calling a female pupil a girl, he will have an excellent case for unfair dismissal.

He also made a follow up comment that was taking into consideration, that he believes biological sex is defined at birth. Which it is.

I agree it’s ridiculous.

I read the headline but suspected there was probably a lot more to the story than was being reported.

Hmm, from the article I read he sounded like a Christian fundamentalist. He was discussing issues unrelated to maths during a maths class and clearly making a point.

He could find a way to address a vulnerable young pupil without causing all this trouble. I’m guessing this isn’t his first brush with his employers.

I think when you look at it more it was more to do with his attitude and letting his beliefs tarnish his behaviour rather than simply the initial comment

Its only being reported in the Mail and the Sun when I checked

Having now seen the television interview- it seems more entrenched than the one off mistake he initially is trying to pass it off as- all during the televised interview he continually referred to the child as she- despite being corrected by Phillip Schofield, and his ‘back up’ was a Christian activist who believes that gender issues leads to promiscuity and made very derogitive comments.

I think there is much more to this story.

On This Morning he still referred to them as she, and said this was because of his religious beliefs.

Although I don't think his religious beliefs belong in the classroom, I think if it genuinely was a one off then he should be allowed back in the classroom.

@Matilda Do you mind sharing the article? I would be interested to see as all I can find is that he misgendered and apologised, but then went on to say publicly that his core beliefs didn't align with trans ideology and he feels sex is defined at birth. But nothing on preaching during lessons etc.

Sounds to me like a religious teacher forcing his hurtful views on a child. Given that we only have half the story I would suspect he deserved what he got.

What I understand from his interview on this morning, the religious issue he would discuss in class was his bible club that he ran. I don't see that as inappropriate if he's recruiting/reminding children in the class which attend his club what is happening etc.

Perhaps he refers to the child as she because she is a female human and that is the correct pronoun?

I know we're supposed to now pretend that boys are girls and vice versa, but are we now sacking people for not lying?

I think there's far more to this than the trans incident. I suspect that he's been letting his beliefs get in the way of his teaching, pushing them on his pupils, and some have complained. I find it very hard to believe that it's just about the misgendering.

YABU. There's more to it. This is just the sound bite that makes dramatic articles and TV. He also told children that marriage was between a man and a woman only. He's letting his religion intrude on his interactions with pupils and it's not right.

If you haven’t seen his interview on This Morning yesterday I can see why you’d think it was unfair. After watching that I completely changed my mind as it came across as a religious stance on the subject rather than a one off mistake. That woman who was sat next to him did not help his case at all imo!

I believe he needs a second chance and some training. If something like this then happens again, I think dismissal would be fair.

That woman who was sat next to him did not help his case at all imo!

I agree, she completely over shadowed him which too wasn't fair.

When I first read this story I was in support of him, I assumed it was a genuine mistake. It must be difficult if you have known someone as one gender for a period of time to make the switch in your head (especially as he will have hundreds of pupils to remember names etc for) and mistakes must surely happen on occasion.

But then you read the rest of this story and it turns out he's a massive homophobe and fundamentalist Christian. It wasn't a mistake, he was deliberately refusing to use correct pronouns, choosing to address by name instead. There have been a lot of other issues as well. He did not cover himself in glory when he went on This Morning yesterday.

Whatever you think about the current trans stuff (and fwiw I'm pretty much on the side of radfems here, in terms of access to women's spaces, sport etc) it costs nothing to be polite, especially to a child, and using someone's preferred pronouns is just that, it's being polite. I am desperately worried about the numbers of girls coming out as trans at the moment, I'm worried about hormone blockers and mastectomies and infertility being thrust upon them when thy are too young to really know what they are signing up to. But i strongly suspect that's not what this guy is worried about, and in any case, targeting a teenager is not the way to go about it.

Sounds like he was making a point. Totally unacceptable if that's the case. Imagine permitting bullying of trans students from the teacher level. Horrific.

Not his call to make. I might believe X but if my school's policy is Y, my choices are to back them up or resign in protest

Not really anyones call to make is it? There are facts, and then there are non facts. If all schools are expecting all teachers to pretend non facts are facts and firing them if they don't, we all have bigger problems than this.