Teacher suspended in Ireland for refusing to use prefered pronoun and name

[miri1985]

www.thejournal.ie/high-court-injunction-teacher-westmeath-pronouns-5853324-Aug2022/

And yes he is one of those Burkes (large very fundamentalist family, campagined against gay marriage, prone to take cases but not a great track of winning)

Oh dear.... The High Court has ordered Mr Burke's arrest.
The story is being reported in the Irish Times as the

"judge has ordered that a teacher who objects to addressing a student with the pronoun 'they' be arrested by the Gardai and brought before the Hight Court to answer for his alleged failure to comply with a temporary injunction preventing him from attending or teaching at the secondary school where he is employed".

A pity that the IT has conflated the issue of Mr Burke not complying with an injunction, together with his alleged objection to using a pronoun.
www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2022/09/02/court-orders-arrest-of-enoch-burke-for-alleged-contempt/

Wow, they really do themselves no favours with their carry on. How on earth did he think showing up at the school was a good idea

Well, if they pick him up today he will likley spend the weekend in the Joy or has the Judge an obligation to sit on the weekend?
I assume no other judge will touch the case as it is a specific appearance order.

It certainly that makes the schools case much easier for them.
They need to add a further suspension for failing to abide by the existing suspension.

I wonder if he is a member of any of the teachers unions or any union?

Can't see him having any truck with trade unions Solas. He'll love being imprisoned of course.

I hope the court can keep this case focused on the issue before the court: failure to comply with an injunction. There may be a case yet to play out in the courts about compelled pronouns but that is not what this is about. This is a gift to TRAs because that is how they will frame it when Enoch loses both the case and his job.

What a shitshow.

He was apparently arrested at the school and is now in the Joy for Contempt of Court.

He is just helping to prove the disiplinary was the correct cource of action by the schools management

www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40954970.html

Having heard of him now, I'd say he is delighted to be in prison. But won't this ruin his teaching career. Odd to destroy your own career.

In theory the contempt and jailing would not be a problem as its civil not a criminal record. But a school would have to take his work history into account when hiring as a temp or permanent member of staff.
Management would suspect they will be spending time managing him which could be spend elsewhere.
There are plenty of young teachers who would love the chance to be permanent so i suppose it may depend if there are many trained in his subjects. Plus how good a teacher he is wrt children getting good results from his classes.

He is an extreme Pentecostalist. As are his siblings. Perhaps they will find some way to monetise this a la Paisley.

I was at a Pentecostal funeral recently. Many of the deceased man's relatives - who are not of that faith - were asked if they would support the church. One guy told me he had no problem with that until they asked him to set up a direct debit.

This is anecdotal of course and I'm not suggesting all Pentecostals churches are like this. But the Burke family seem to thrive on controversy and the attendant publicity it generates.

He’s been jailed

Hmm. Bit of a circus. Think I was wrong to imagine the publicity would help spread awareness of the issue itself.

Most ppl will just think - oh its those nutters at it again.

We are often told that feminists and right wing religious nutters are on the same side but look at the difference between his actions and someone like Maya's. She did not show up at her workplace and make a nuisance of herself. She did not play the martyr. She went to court and won the arguments - used reason to slam the no debaters.

He was facing an internal hearing. If it had gone wrong he could have taken the same path as Maya but he just wants the optics of fighting an internal hearing from Mountjoy Prison.

It his just his version of no debate.

I am interested in the hearing, in the debate, in the law and how it reacts with his duties as a teacher, but could not care less if he suffers for his childish tantrum.

Adding news articles re jailing here:

www.thejournal.ie/enoch-burke-court-2-5857873-Sep2022/

www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/teacher-enoch-burke-spent-his-first-night-in-custody-isolated-from-general-prison-population-41960828.html

It will be interesting to see if his suspension is found to be lawful. Was the issue his behaviour at the event (and would that be grounds for suspension), or was it his response to the pronoun directive?

There's a contradiction in the school saying that "no-one was forced to do anything" and yet they "expect" teachers to use compelled pronouns.

I agree with zanahoria that he would have handled this differently if he seriously wanted to challenge the legality of compelled pronouns and the extent of the protections relating to religious belief in such situations with a view to establishing precedent. Maya was a class act. He is not. Pun not intended.

I don't agree with posters on this thread. I reckon the public see beyond Enoch Burke's behaviour and are annoyed about the demand that a teacher uses they. This story has gone way beyond Ireland now.

Well let's hope so . Meanwhile there is a gushing article in the Guardian about the trans Gaelic player Giulia thingy.

Describes him as ' slender and of medium height'. No photograph of course ! Apparently the opposition to him playing against women is all because of our legacy of Catholic Church and reactionary conservatism. Or something.

Probably deserves a its own thread . But I'm in a rush this morning.

reduxx.info/irish-lgbtq-inclusive-football-team-with-transgender-player-wins-womens-junior-final/

Photo here .

My teen attends this school and he's actually a fabulous teacher , he's always been very transparent and vocal about his beliefs but when his behaviour was appropriate I thought it good to encourage conversation amongst teens of different opinions. Now it's just escalated to a circus.

But I do have to acknowledge he is an excellent educator in his subject.

No wonder they left the photo out ! Hypocrites.

What subject does he teach @spanglypants ?

German politics and history.

I think the judge will focus on the law and the case is about the breaking of the injunction not about pronouns, forced speech or even the legality of the suspension.
From radio discussion I understand that Mr Burke did not teach this child or have any need to communicate with them.
He did not seek a review of the policy in the appropriate forum but went straight for public harassment and publicity.

The parents chose to request that their child be referred to as they. The school principal chose to send a dictat to the staff. Enoch Burke responded in June in a way that made it obvious there would be troubles. The school responded by having him arrested rather than dealing with it in July and August.

Is this a new principal @spanglypants ? Is she young?

He has breached his employment terms and conditions.

No she had been there for a while and had turned the school around. She was a fantastic principal.
I wouldn't say they jumped straight to arresting rather than dealing with it. The disciplinary process was being worked through and the next meeting was on September 7th , it was more his behaviour and insisting on turning up at school when he wsnt meant to as part of the procedure that led to his arrest.

Which admittedly does sound extreme for it to get to that . But there were many steps for him not to let it end there.

The whole situation is a mess.