In November, a complaint was made against Christian teacher, Joshua Sutcliffe from Oxford, that he referred to a transgender pupil as a “girl”, rather than the desired ‘boy’. The pupil had self-declared as ‘male’. However, according to a press release from the Christian Legal Centre, Joshua had not been given any formal instruction on how to refer to the pupil.
Following a week-long investigation, the school found that Joshua ‘misgendered’ the pupil, ‘demonstrating discriminatory behaviours’ and ‘[contravened] the school’s equality policy’. The school recommended dealing with the matter of ‘misconduct’ under the disciplinary policy.
The Mail on Sunday reports that Joshua is an evangelical church pastor and that when he noticed the teenager and a friend working hard, he said, “Well done girls”. However, he apologised for this.
The paper also reports that he was said to be in breach of equality policies when he referred to the pupil by name rather than as ‘he’ or ‘him’.
Responding to the disciplinary process, Joshua commented: “I have been shocked and saddened by the actions of the school, which, in my opinion, reflect an increasing trend of seeing Christians, people like me, being marginalised in the public square, and our beliefs punished and silenced.
“I have a deep conviction that we are all made in God’s image, male and female.”
The Christian Legal Centre is supporting the teacher.
The disciplinary…
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