Controversial statements see teacher banned

A TEACHER who falsely informed students that Covid was a hoax, labelled Islam as 'demonic, described male homosexuality as an 'unnatural, unhealthy, disgusting perversion, and asserted that Black Lives Matter (BLM) represented 'Burn, Loot, Murder' has been prohibited from teaching.

- ADAM POSTANS

Patrick Lawler, in a Catholic newsletter, declared that 'all other religions are false' and characterised abortion as a 'great wickedness, according to a ruling by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).

The 62-year-old was found to have erroneously told Year 6 pupils during a transition day to secondary school that Rosa Parks was a fictional character, that the renowned story of the black activist refusing to give up her bus seat was 'staged, and that Martin Luther King was a 'fraud and had embezzled lots of money.

The majority of the allegations pertain to Lawler's tenure as a history teacher at Bede Academy in Northumberland from 2015-20, but also involved time when he worked in Bristol.

Despite receiving a warning letter in 2019 regarding his contentious views, he was later hired as a supply teacher by Monarch Education Recruitment Agency in Bristol and worked at Bristol Brunel Academy in Speedwell, part of Cabot Learning Federation.