Westmeath school gets temporary injunction banning a suspended teacher from it's premises

I just put it out there because the bible has a lot of dodgy stuff in it that Burke could use in his favour. I referred to Sodom and Gomorrah because of the perhaps tenuous connexion to non-standard sexuality, if I could put it that way.

For myself, I'm completely catholic about the matter - you can do anything that's not illegal as far as I care.

The Anglicans doubtless have rules, and this is not just any school, but a diocesan school, which I imagine means it has to be seen to uphold all the CoI rules, beliefs and the like. So if Burke has read the rules and found something to back his stance up (I've no idea whether he has or hasn't) the school could find itself in a difficult place.

I'm just theorising here, ok?

Why do you think the CoI take everything in the bible literally?

I'm guessing you mean the likes of Mr Burke who caused a scene, harassed his boss, trespassed, ignored a court order and got himself thrown in jail; over something that impacts very, very little on him. If that's not anchoring undue amount of importance over a pronoun, then I don't know what is.

Or shall we consider the belief system that led to Mr Burke's tantrum?

In Genesis, God created Man and Woman as God created Land and Sea. There is no mention of rivers here though. He also made the sun to govern day, and the moon and stars to govern night. No word of them appearing in the sky together. In the same verse as creating man and women, the Bible talks of how we should rule over fish in the sea, and birds in the sky. Yet mentions nothing of flying fish, river fish, or birds that dive into the water, or non-flying birds, or birds that swim.

Not to mention the sheer amount of times names get changed in the Bible. Even Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter, and God had changed Sarah and Abraham.

Or how about in Galatians where they straight out just say there is no longer male and female, only one.

If I were to say that it's "all nonsense and some are just choosing to anchor more importance and reverence to some of it than the rest", I'm not sure it would be those living their life with basic manners.

"She said any refusal to address persons by their preferred gender or new name would constitute discrimination on gender grounds."

I'm not so sure it does. Unless the court can prove that one can self assign ones gender?

I would imagine that Burke has a stronger case for discrimination on religious grounds.

His religious beliefs are protected by Equality Legislation but I'm not sure that the students beliefs are.

They are a strange family of religious zealots. They must find it very difficult to navigate through the modern world.

A bit of he said, she said...but the sister of a colleague has a friend who has a child in said school. Burke teaches the child German. The child has nothing but praise for Burke - in relation to the teaching of the subject. If true, it would seem that he can function normally but goes off the deep end on matters of faith.

I don’t think the religious angle will work for him as it would be very difficult for him, if not impossible, to link his gender views to his religion.

Well no. Im sure the burkes have their own very literal interpretations of the bible but if the CoI do not share those interpretations why would they accept them? Are the Burkes even CoI?

I think the School principal and board would have proper legal advice on these issues.

Since July 2015, transgender people in Ireland can self-declare their gender for the purpose of updating passports, driving licences, obtaining new birth certificates, and getting married.

On 15 July 2015, the Oireachtas passed the Gender Recognition Act 2015 which permits an Irish citizen to correct their gender on government documents through self-determination. The law does not require any medical intervention by the applicant nor an assessment by the state.

If the child/guardian/parent can assign a gender on a Government document, do you think a Court will deny that right in a school?

I'm not sure how much his beliefs are protected when he wasn't facing consequences for his beliefs. He hasn't been suspended, and then arrested because of his beliefs. He was suspended for the circus he made and the harassment of his boss, then made it worse by continuing to show up at the school, which led to a court order, which he then ignored, and was subsequently arrested. The fact he didn't want to call a student by a certain name/pronoun is fairly irrelevant in what happened after. If anyone did that in their place of work, for any reason, they'd face similar consequences.

A child/parent/guardian cant do that no. The GRA currently only applies to over 18s and only over 16s subject to court order

Not sure how any of this relevant when Wilsons school anti bullying policy explicitly recognises trans students and transphobic bullying

whsantibullyingpolicy2022.pdf (wilsonshospitalschool.com)