|
London school apologises to
gay teacher subjected to homophobia
27 Feb 2008– A school governing body yesterday
apologised, unreservedly, for the homophobic comments made by a head teacher
which forced a young gay teacher to resign from his job at an inner city school
in London.
The newly qualified teacher – and a member of the National Union
of Teachers and identified only as “David” – complained to an employment
tribunal that he had been discriminated against and harassed him in breach of
the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003.
Proceedings were halted with an offer of compensation and an
apology from the school.
This is the first time that the NUT has succeeded in extracting
an apology and compensation from a school for sexual orientation discrimination
against a teacher.
In his first term at the school in 2006, the teacher said that
his head teacher had told him to stop “banging on” about gay issues when he
dealt with homophobic issues in the classroom and told him that he wasn't “the
only one in the village”.
The teacher complained that his head teacher had stated that
“there was no homophobia at the school until you came,” that he inflamed older
students by the way he walked in the corridors that he “did not walk that way at
interview” and referred to him as “Gay Dave”.
She later denied that she had made such comments.
“All I wanted was an apology and recognition that the comments
made by my head teacher were homophobic and that the treatment I received at the
hands of my head teacher was against the law,” said David.
“It took over a year to get where I am today.”
Steve Sinnott General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers
said that this case should never have reached tribunal.
“David’s employer should have recognised immediately that the
head teacher’s comments were humiliating, offensive and amounted to unlawful
harassment.
“Employers have a duty to prevent harassment and discrimination
against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) indeed all teachers,” Mr.
Sinnott continued.
“The school failed our member and was forced to apologise for
failing to intervene to prevent the head teacher from 'exacerbating the offence'
caused by the comments.
“This needs to be a lesson to schools that we will not tolerate
homophobic harassment of teachers.”
|
