Struck-off teacher's five-word reaction after telling pupils 'being gay is a sin'
Maths teacher Joshua Sutcliffe has lost a High Court appeal against a decision to ban him from the profession.
A teacher who refused to call a pupil by their pronouns and told children being gay was a sin has lost his appeal against being struck off from his profession.
Maths teacher and Christian Joshua Sutcliffe has now warned that “every teacher is at risk” if they share their beliefs in the classroom.
Mr Sutcliffe was barred from teaching in 2023 after the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found he breached safeguarding duties by refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns and telling pupils being gay was wrong.
But in a case believed to be the first of its kind to reach appeal at the High Court, his appeal against the finding was dismissed by the judge yesterday, Thursday, July 25.
In a statement he said: “I still stand by my Christian convictions that it is harmful and detrimental to affirm gender-confused children.”
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He continued: “The TRA wanted me to capitulate and say that I was wrong. I have been severely punished for refusing to do so.
“Despite this setback, I will continue to fight for justice and to get my career back.
He added: “With this ruling, every teacher is at risk if they share their beliefs and views in the classroom.”
In May 2023 Mr Sutcliffe was given a prohibition order by the teaching regulator which found him guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” while working at The Cherwell School in Oxford between 2015 and 2018.
The misconduct panel concluded that he failed to use a pupil’s preferred pronouns - in class, in an email to school staff and during an appearance on ITV’s breakfast programme This Morning.
It also said Mr Sutcliffe also failed to safeguard pupils’ wellbeing when he said that God had stopped a person from being gay because it was wrong.
In addition he was accused of expressing his view to students that equal marriage was wrong.
But Mr Sutcliffe’s lawyers argued at the High Court that the teaching ban impacted his rights to freedom of speech and religion and that Mr Sutcliffe had a right “not to believe gender identity belief”.
In a written ruling on Thursday Mr Justice Pepperall dismissed his attempt to overturn the ban.
It said: “This case is not about a teacher who accidentally failed to follow a school’s policy of referring to a transgender pupil by the child’s chosen pronouns or even about a teacher who reconciled his religious convictions with such policy by choosing to avoid pronouns altogether and referring to the child by name.
“Rather, it is about a teacher who deliberately used female pronouns to refer to a transgender male pupil both in the classroom and then on national television in such a way that he would be ‘outed’ without any apparent regard for a vulnerable child who was thereby caused significant distress.”
The judge also said his comments about homosexuality being a sin were made “without any apparent regard for the gay and lesbian children in his class and who made them feel that their teacher regarded them as worthless”.
