(OPINION) A teacher in the United Kingdom was secretly recorded threatening students who reject LGBTQ learning in his class, saying guilty parties “will be dealt with severely.”
According to TheBlaze, Students at Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy in London secretly recorded their teacher, who warned what would happen to those who speak against the LGBTQ curriculum, Fox News reported, citing the nonprofit Christian Legal Centre.
“Let me make this very clear: You don’t have a choice whether or not you learn about LGBT+ in this school,” the teacher is heard saying in an audio recording that’s gone viral on social media. “You don’t have a choice. It’s one of our values, our British values, and if you refuse to do it, that will be dealt with severely.”
The teacher added that girls bullied him when he was a boy due to his mannerisms, and that still haunts him as a 40-year-old man, Fox News said. “And if you say something that’s derogatory or could hurt somebody else in this room, that is very serious, and it is as serious as if you were using racist language. Do not do it.”
The teacher also suggested he identifies as LGBTQ, the cable network said: “I cannot tell you how much having people not recognize who I am and openly say that they don’t value who I am, because when you say, ‘I don’t agree with LGBTQ people,’ you’re saying you don’t value me.”
Fox News added that the teacher also asked, “Why should I be judged based on who I choose to love? Whether you agree or not, don’t say something that’s going to make me or someone like me feel less human.”
He also said school leadership is obliged to deal “in a very serious way” with all violations in relation to speaking out against LBGTQ values, the cable network added.
Parents lodged a formal complaint with the principal of the school over the teacher’s words, which were recorded in February, Fox News said. The first person to raise concerns was a 14-year-old Muslim student who was shown a video that affirmed children coming out as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, the cable network said.
Parents said the teacher’s comments are “indefensible” and that he “abused his position of trust in using his platform as a teacher to threaten and shame pupils, none of whom, apart from one student, made any comments about LGBT education,” Fox News added.
