Enoch Burke turns up to school again despite sacking - read OP before posting

Yes and no.

The Burke's don't care about public discourse. They certainly care about media attention in the hopes it might add to pressures on judges. But Enoch's aim above all else is to challenge it legally, to try get the courts to rule for his religious rights because he sees it as a battle between religious rights and LGBTQ+ rights.

The media were there for the first few days he was at the school this year. But then they stopped. They'll report on updates regarding the court rulings etc, and maybe if he starts showing up to the school again. But then they'll stop until there's something worth reporting on.

So us discussing it here means absolutely no difference. The Burke's don't care, nor do the media.

I will say that assuming that what he really wants is a ruling based on his religious rights vs the rights of LGBTIA+ people, which I do not doubt, then he has gone about it in a remarkably inept way. He had the opportunity to have as good a case as his side is going to get. But he was unwilling or unable to stop himself from just trying to get his way by being a bully. So rather than making it about religion it became about his behavior. I have to wonder if at least in part his absolute insistence that it is still all about his religious freedom is at least at some level due to his guilt at having screwed up what should have been a relatively straightforward case. So while I think that now it is all about trying to frame it as a court case pitting his religious rights against the rights of LGBTIA+ people, I think initially he really thought that if he just threw a fit he would get his way.

Now I'd like to think that he would've lost his case even if he had been able to remain civil and act like an adult. Religious freedom is important, but not at the cost of letting people abuse other people over it.

The Burkes will release their new recording; 'I fought the law...'

I think the law is quite clear on this: freedom of religion is a private matter - it does not trump.freedom of the individual. Nor does if grant you the right to discriminate in a public environment.

If that wasn't the case, we'd all.be vulnerable and a successful case wouldn't be in the offing, it would already have been taken.

There's a teacher in the UK called Kevin Lister who has found himself in much the same position as Enoch. Unsurprisingly, he hasn't gone down the roaring and shouting route and doesn't think Enoch's approach is the correct one. Still, it'll be an interesting case to keep an eye on. He describes himself as a born-again athiest. There was an article about him in the Sunday Times last weekend. Hopefully it's OK to post the bits from the article that aren't talking about Enoch?

Lister was fired after a complaint of transphobia was upheld. He is taking legal action against his Wiltshire school, claiming unfair dismissal. He said that if he were successful it would represent a “very big victory” for teachers embroiled in similar disputes.

“I don’t like to judge but [Burke’s] is not the course of action I would have chosen. I find it hard to see how he can pull back from the situation.

“If there are cases like mine that come to court, and schools and colleges get financially and reputationally hammered, then that might be the thing that enables Mr Burke to come back into education and teaching employment,” he told The Sunday Times.

Lister said that in his case he had raised concern about whether there was parental consent for the pupil’s desire to socially transition in the school. Since losing his job he has applied for other teaching positions but has not heard back from any of the schools.

“We [Lister and Burke] both got suspended and it’s at that point where our pathways diverged. He decided he would protest by turning up at the school, got a court order and went to jail for it. I respect the admirable courage but I chose a different pathway.

“I’d already made two formal safeguarding accusations in the college, so that gave me a very strong legal basis to tackle this,” Lister said.

It sounds like their cases diverged before they got suspended to me. Unless Lister was also suspended for being a bully to his boss.

That reads to me that a qualified teacher genuinely thinks that the outcome of his case in a UK court has some relevance to Irish law. Bless their educational standards.

“If there are cases like mine that come to court, and schools and colleges get financially and reputationally hammered, then that might be the thing that enables Mr Burke to come back into education and teaching employment,” he told The Sunday Times.

Outside of being in a foreign country it can't have an impact because and let's stress this for the millionth time Burke was not sacked for transphobia.

I'd say most of the gruntles are fine, I reckon the '30-somethings' is missing the target a bit though!