A Christian teacher sacked after she accessed a trans pupil’s safeguarding report and transcribed it to her own computer has lost her case for unfair dismissal and religious discrimination.
The teacher, who cannot be named and is referred to only as ‘A’, was suspended from her role at a Nottinghamshire County Council-run school in September 2021 after she refused to refer to a trans child by a male name and pronouns due to her Christian beliefs.
“I am concerned that I am required to give ‘affirmative care’ to somebody who may regret it later,” the teacher said in a letter to the school’s headteacher.
“I am convinced that blanket affirmative care would be very damaging, potentially leading to irreversible physical and mental harm.”
In response, the head said: “You are entitled to hold your own personal beliefs and we fully support you in your right to hold those beliefs, however, as those beliefs if acted on could be a direct breach of GDPR and an act of direct discrimination you must not act on them.”
The child, known only as ‘X’ in the case, was moved to a different class to “to safeguard him from any potential harm” and A was informed she must address X with his chosen name and pronouns when they otherwise interact. The request to refer to the child in this way was made by the child’s parents.
However, A continued to express her belief that she should not have to affirm the child’s gender due to her religious beliefs, which her representatives said would “go against her conscience”.
In a letter to the headteacher she stated she believes in “the truth of the Bible” and that “sex is a God-given reality which should not be conflated with ‘gender identity’”.
“Being male or female is an immutable biological fact,” the teacher wrote.
After the suspension ended and A returned to the school and during the academic year she proceeded to use school’s CPOMS system to access X’s safeguarding file a number of times.
“She created no report on the CPOMS system regarding any welfare concerns she might have about child X, either on this occasion or any other later occasion,” the tribunal ruled, as quoted by LBC.
“She was fully aware that her use of [the system] in this manner was unauthorised, and indeed she accepted during cross-examination that her access of the system was wrong.”
In February 2022 – after accessing X’s safeguarding reports – she wrote another letter to the school in which she said based on “information I have seen and heard” child X is “clearly suffering from serious mental health problems”.
However, the school did not become aware she had actually been accessing and transcribing the child’s safeguarding report to her personal computer until her legal representatives told the local council she would be applying for a judicial review over the concerns she raised.
Following this, she was suspended and subsequently fired after a formal disciplinary hearing.
A’s claims that she was subjected to detriment for making a protected disclosure, automatic unfair dismissal, ordinary unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, direct religion or belief discrimination, and harassment related to religion or belief were all dismissed by the employment tribunal.
Peter McTigue, the employment judge in the case, said A’s belief that she was “correct and that the approach adopted by the school and by child X and their parents was incorrect” was “unreasonable” because she did not have all the relevant information to X’s case.
In a statement published on Christian Concern – which is backing A’s case – following the outcome of the tribunal, she said: “I am very disappointed with the judgment. It misrepresents the facts. I ask myself if the courts are afraid of hearing any evidence that socially transitioning young children is harmful. The ruling goes to great lengths to support those who silence, discredit, and remove anybody who dares ask if we are doing harm.
“I will appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The ruling refuses to confront the extremely important issues regarding safeguarding and transgender affirmation in primary schools which is at the heart of this case.
“Like all teachers at the school, I owed a safeguarding duty to Child X.
“I could not participate in causing harm to Child X. The tragic stories of ‘detransitioners’, clear expert scientific evidence, and the recent Supreme Court ruling, back and vindicate me.
“Teachers are being bullied not to question trans affirming policies, but evidence shows these policies put the welfare of children at serious risk.
“I was informed by my conscience as a Christian to live right before my God and also by the body of evidence I had researched which informed me clearly that social transitioning young children is harmful.”
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