A Christian teacher has been handed an indefinite ban for misgendering a pupil.
The Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA) found that Joshua Sutcliffe 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.
According to The Telegraph:
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.
A complaint against the teacher for showing pupils at a different school a video which contained “inappropriate comments”, including that a growing problem in today’s society was that men were not masculine enough, was also upheld.
“The panel was satisfied that the conduct of Mr Sutcliffe fell significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of a teacher,” the TRA ruling stated, and he was therefore guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
A decision on whether to impose a ban on behalf of Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, lay with Alan Meyrick, the TRA’s decision maker.
He said: “In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.”
The ruling comes as schools wait for the first detailed government guidance on how to respond to transgender pupils, which is due to be published this term.
Head teachers have warned that without official guidance, schools are working “in a vacuum”.
The guidance is expected to say that school leaders can refuse to use different pronouns demanded by pupils.
A Whitehall source said that the guidance will reflect the interim findings of the Cass review, an NHS-commissioned report by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass.
She warned that allowing children to “socially transition” to their preferred gender was “not a neutral act” and could have “significant” impact on their “psychological functioning”.
