Banned teacher told LGBT pupils God could stop people being gay

A Christian teacher told LGBT pupils that God could stop people being gay, a panel has heard.

Joshua Sutcliffe (pictured) made anti-LGBT comments while employed as a maths teacher at the Cherwell School in Oxford, a professional conduct panel found during hearings which concluded this month.

He also showed a video which criticised men who are "passive" or "not masculine enough" to pupils while teaching at St Aloysius College, a Catholic school in Islington.

The Teaching Regulation Agency panel found Sutcliffe failed to safeguard the dignity and wellbeing of his pupils, and was therefore in breach of requirements to "uphold public trust in the profession" and "maintain high standards of ethics and behaviour". He was therefore prohibited from teaching indefinitely.

The panel heard that while employed at the Cherwell School between 2015 and 2018, Sutcliffe interjected in a conversation between two pupils to talk about a person who through God had stopped being gay because it was 'wrong'.

Both pupils felt this comment was directed at them because they identify as LGBT. They felt Sutcliffe implied they needed to be 'cured'.

Sutcliffe also handed the same pupils a leaflet entitled "Jesus and the Third Gender" during a Pride march in 2017, the panel heard.

The pupils said Sutcliffe would "often talk about religious matters" in maths lessons. This included making a comment that he was against gay marriage.

Sutcliffe also regularly refused to the preferred pronouns for one of the pupils, who is transgender. This included on the national ITV programme 'This Morning', which had the effect of identifying to other pupils that this pupil was transgender, when this was not previously common knowledge.

Sutcliffe is a prominent street preacher. His personal website says: "The homosexual act itself is an abomination and should not be condoned by our society.

"People who commit such acts should face a fine or even prison".

The panel heard that in 2019, during form period, Sutcliffe showed St Aloysius pupils a video entitled "Make Men Masculine Again" by PragerU, an American rightwing lobby group.

The video says "the growing problem in today's society is that men are not masculine enough" and "I don't know any woman of any age who is attracted to a passive man".

According to one pupil, no one in the class was given an opportunity to discuss the video or present any alternative arguments.

The panel said Sutcliffe "acted insensitively by failing to take into account the potential ramifications for pupils whose personal circumstances were not reflective of those portrayed as idealistic" in the video.

Panel: Teacher "failed to distinguish between his role as a teacher with that of a preacher"

In considering Sutcliffe's freedom speech, the panel said the right to freedom of expression is a qualified right and professional bodies "are entitled to place reasonable and proportionate restrictions on those subject to their professional codes".

They added: "As such, just because a belief is said to be a religious belief, it does not give a person subject to professional regulation the right to express such beliefs in any way he or she sees fit".

Recommending a prohibition order, the panel said it found Sutcliffe "failed to distinguish between his role as a teacher with that of a preacher".

NSS: Religious belief 'not a license to proselytise in all circumstances'

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "The decision to prohibit Joshua Sutcliffe from teaching is reasonable and proportionate.

"A person who thinks it is acceptable to imply to gay pupils that God can cure them, or to show pupils videos promoting sexist propaganda, is unfit to teach.

"As the panel rightly found, having a religious belief does not, and should not, give automatic license to proselytise in any and all circumstances – and especially when it amounts to targeting vulnerable pupils with homophobic rhetoric."

Image: YouTube