Teacher found guilty of professional misconduct

SHARED HIS VIEWS ON COCAINE, COVID AND RELIGION

- By ADAM POSTANS Local Democracy Reporter

A TEACHER who falsely told 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.

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 were also involved time he worked in Bristol.