A teacher who could lose his job after he accidentally called a transgender pupil a girl while praising him for his schoolwork says his suspension amounts to a “public shaming”. Joshua Sutcliffe, 27, said “well done girls” to the teenager and a friend when he spotted them working hard at the secondary school in Oxfordshire. He quickly apologised when corrected by the transgender pupil, who identifies as a boy, and thought nothing more would follow.
But six weeks later, he was suspended after the pupil’s mother lodged a formal complaint and he now could face the sack for what he claims was an honest mistake. Following an investigation, Mr Sutcliffe has been summoned to a formal disciplinary hearing to face misconduct charges for ‘misgendering’.
He has been told to come to the school and sit in the staff room preparing work, but said he was not allowed to discuss the situation with colleagues or teach lessons. Speaking to MirrorOnline tonight, he said he was “completely amazed” when he found out he was going to be investigated for the accidental comment.
“This is a public shaming of me. All the students are walking past me and I’m there, in the classroom, not teaching them maths. It’s just a really sad situation”, he said.
“I’m going to be sat there in front of the school governors and the head teacher like a naughty child sat in detention.” And he believes his suspension is “absolutely” due to his strongly-held religious beliefs. “It’s discrimination of the highest order, it really is,” he said. “For me, it is exactly why this has happened. “It’s happening nationwide, Christians being told they can’t express their faith or religious beliefs. That is partly why I have spoken out about it.”
While Joshua said there are sometimes occasions as a teacher he would not speak up, he said he “would never keep my faith under wraps”. Mr Sutcliffe is a devout Christian, having grown up on a Mennonite Bible camp in Canada. At 10, he moved to England with his family where his dad became a religious education teacher. And in 2015 Joshua moved to Oxford, where he is also an Associate Pastor with Christ Revelation, after securing a job with the state school.
He says he had told senior staff carrying out the probe at the Oxfordshire school that he believes it is not wrong to call a person born a female a girl.
However, he is adamant that he did not use the term on purpose as he is a professional. Joshua added he feels it is a breach of his human rights to force him to use ‘he’ or ‘him’ when referring to a pupil born a female. The headteacher of the school said it could not comment due to ongoing disciplinary matters.
Source: Mirror online
