A teacher in the United Kingdom who was fired for not affirming the gender transition of an 8-year-old is fighting back in court.
The controversy began in 2021 when an elementary school teacher known in court documents as “Hannah” was told that an 8-year-old was joining her class and that the child must be addressed by a new name and pronouns and be allowed to use restrooms and changing rooms of the opposite biological sex.
Hannah told administrators she could not affirm the child’s new identity because, she said, doing so would harm not only the child but the other children in the class. She noted that many trans-identifying children later de-transition. Affirming the children’s transgender identity, she further said, would violate her conscience and her Christian faith.
The school subsequently fired her, she says.
An employment tribunal in Nottingham, England, heard her case this week. The Christian Legal Centre is representing her. Hannah had worked at the school for five years “without issue,” the legal group says. She claims “victimization for whistleblowing, unfair dismissal, and discrimination on the grounds of her Christian beliefs,” the group says. The school’s policy “appeared to allow any child at the school, without medical evidence, to be affirmed in whichever gender they chose.”
Hannah says she was acting in the child’s best interests.
“Like all teachers at the school, I owed a safeguarding duty to Child X,” she said. “I followed all the correct procedures, I backed all of my concerns with expert evidence and believed the action I took was in the public interest. It is because I care so much about children that I am taking this action. This isn’t about me simply trying to prove that I am right but about the safety of seriously distressed children.”
She added that the “tragic stories of ‘de-transitioners’” and scientific evidence vindicate her.
“Teachers are being bullied not to question trans-affirming policies, but evidence shows they put the welfare of children at serious risk,” she said. “I am determined to pursue justice over how I have been treated because my number one concern and motivation is to protect this child and other children in this country from harm.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said the case “exposes the confusion and untruths” in schools “which are developing into a public health crisis.”
“The Department for Education must look closely at this case and take appropriate action to protect teachers, who often hold Christian beliefs on these issues, from being hounded out of the profession for opposing or even questioning transgender ideology,” Williams said.
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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
