Christian Teacher Found Guilty for Sharing Biblical Beliefs on Sexuality in 'a Christian School'
A Christian teacher in the U.K. has been found guilty of "'unacceptable professional conduct" by a high court for telling students about her biblical beliefs on gender and sexuality, all while teaching at a Christian school.
Glawdys Leger was a Modern Foreign Languages teacher for 12 years before she was suspended from Bishop Justus Church of England School in Bromley in February 2022.
The 43-year-old refused to promote LGBTQI+ ideology to her seventh-grade students which included introducing them to "gender identities such as pansexual, asexual, intersex, and transgender, plus Stonewall-inspired films and Animal Farm-esque slogans: 'Equality is a strength, Diversity is our power, Inclusion is a necessity'," Christian Legal Centre reports.
Instead, she told students that Christians believe sex outside of marriage is sin and that as a Christian you need to "live your life for God."
She also said, "There is no place to hurt or exclude anyone because they are LGBT, Christians should pray for people who are LGBT, And that she 'spoke about God's love and how we are all loved and precious,'" Christian Concern explained in a statement.
According to a professional conduct panel (PCP), Leger's comments were recorded by one of the students who complained that the teacher said being LGBT was a "sin" and that transgender people were "just confused."
In December 2023, the PCP removed Leger from her position and deemed her conduct to be "unprofessional."
The Aquinas Church of England Education Trust then reported Leger to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) because "she upset one pupil by sharing her views on LBGTQ+ and she went on to share many more in our investigation and subsequent hearings, such that we were not certain whether she would continue to share those views with young people."
The TRA also found that Leger was guilty of "unacceptable professional conduct" and labeled the expression of her beliefs as "inappropriate," despite evidence showing Leger to be "trustworthy, professional and approachable."
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The TRA then considered recommending to the Secretary of State to have her banned from teaching for her comments, but notified Leger and her lawyers it could "not be proved" that she lacked tolerance and found that she "had no intention of causing distress or harm to pupils."
However, in their decision, the panel concluded that "public confidence in the profession could be seriously weakened if conduct such as that found against Ms. Leger were not treated with the utmost seriousness when regulating the conduct of the profession," and that her "choice not to present a balanced view undermined the School community's aspiration to provide a supportive environment for children who may be exploring sexual identity."
Leger challenged the allegations in a UK high court arguing that the school's duty to provide a balanced curriculum did not apply to her personal beliefs as an individual teacher.
But the high court sided with the "guilty" verdict of the PCP while stopping short of banning her from teaching for the rest of her life.
"I am relieved to not be banned from teaching in the UK. However, I find it extremely alarming that I have been found guilty of discussing and debating Christian teaching in a Christian school in an RE lesson," Leger said after the initial ruling.
"I raised what I did because children were being taught one extreme LGBTQI+ narrative at the school with no debate. Yet for raising, expressing, and teaching Christian beliefs on these issues, I have been accused of not presenting a balanced view," she continued.
Leger added, "The message from the TRA is that Christian teachers must not only be silent about their beliefs, but they must actively promote LGBT ideology or risk being severely punished and even losing their careers."
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said it is only getting worse for Christian teachers in the U.K.
"Regulatory bodies are creating an oppressive environment for teachers which chills the atmosphere and prevents the expression of Christian faith in schools and any alternative or balancing viewpoint to LGBTQI+ ideology," she said. "Glawdys is a Christian teacher who was teaching Christian ethics in an RE lesson in a Christian school. For her to be punished for doing her job well creates censorship in the classroom."
