Glawdys Leger (Photo courtesy of Christian Concern)A Catholic teacher faces losing her career for refusing to promote and teach extreme LGBTQI ideology at a Church of England (CofE) secondary school and for expressing her biblical beliefs on human sexuality in response to student questions.
According to Christian Concern, a UK-based advocacy group that seeks to raise the Christian voice in the public square, a 43-year-old Foreign Language teacher named Glawdys Leger lost her job at the Bishop Justus CofE School in Bromley, Kent, for refusing to teach extreme and politically partisan LGBTQ1 lessons which had been incorporated into the Religious Education curriculum. She was also found guilty of having expressed her beliefs to students during a discussion on LGBTQI issues that God believes humans are born male and female and that LGBTQI practice is sinful.
Not satisfied with just firing her, however, the Aquinas Church of England Education Trust subsequently reported Ms 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.”
On the basis of merely upsetting” rather than harming a child, the TRA decided to forward a case against her, the first in its history, which could result if barring her from the teaching profession indefinitely.
Leger, who has been teaching for 12 years, started at the Church of England school in 2017 and immediately began to see evidence of the promotion of LGBTQI identities and other contentious ethical and political issues within the so-called Christian school.
For example, the teaching material she was forced to use included extreme content on gender identity with themes that suggest to children (age 11) that humans can be born in the wrong body and introduce them to gender identities such as pansexual, asexual, intersex and transgender.
Ms Leger had also grown increasingly alarmed by the promotion and acceptance of abortion and Critical Race Theory within the school.
She tried to bring these concerns, and her own conscientious objections, to her superiors, but was brushed aside and ignored.
Believing parents who thought they were sending their children to a Christian school were being deceived, Ms Leger decided that she would teach the Christian view on LGBTQI topics as students were getting only a one-sided narrative. During lesson discussions on LGBTQI issues, she expressed that she did not believe in transgender ideology, that Christians believe sex outside of marriage is sin and that as a Christian you need to ‘live your life for God.’
The complaint that would lead to her sacking followed soon after.
She has since received a letter from the TRA confirming the launch of a case against her stating that ‘in accordance with the Education Act 2011 the Secretary of State is able to prohibit teachers from the profession for reasons of unacceptable professional conduct’, adding that her conduct “was contrary to Fundamental British values in that it lacked tolerance to those with different beliefs.”
Ahead of the TRA hearing, Leger said, “The impact of what has happened to me has taken a great toll on me. The thought of me losing my career for expressing my Christian beliefs in response to questions from students is heart-breaking. I was treated like a criminal and as though I was a danger for expressing my Christian beliefs.” As a result of her experience at this school, “Increasingly, it became obvious that all the Christian aspects of the school were just for show. Beneath the mask, being promoted in assemblies and in the classroom without parents’ knowledge, were political and ethical beliefs completely contrary to Christian beliefs on these issues.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “Glawdys’s case is part of a growing trend of the TRA targeting Christian teachers for expressing their faith in schools. Glawdys was hounded out of the job she loved because she wanted children to understand in an RE lesson in a Christian school that Christian teaching does not align with LGBTQI ideology. She did not want impressionable children heading into their teenage years to be force-fed teaching that endorsed and celebrated gender confusion without question.
“The fact that a Church of England school and affiliated Trust has chosen to try and end her career for expressing her Christian beliefs is disturbing, but sadly no longer surprising.
“The Church of England has embraced LGBTQI ideology and in an ‘inclusive’ school environment, penalises any Christian teacher who expresses its own teaching on marriage and human sexuality.”
The Christian Legal Center is standing firmly on the side of Ms. Leger.
Click here to sign a petition asking the TRA not to ban this faithful Christian from the teaching profession.
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