Teacher banned for telling pupils homosexual males are ‘unnatural’ and Islam is ‘demonic’
Patrick Lawler was banned from teaching indefinitely with a minimum of four years before he can apply for reinstatement due to the ‘high risk of similar misconduct reoccurring’
A teacher who falsely told pupils that Covid was a hoax, branded Islam as ‘demonic’, labelled male homosexuality as an ‘unnatural, unhealthy, disgusting perversion’, and claimed that Black Lives Matter (BLM) stood for ‘Burn, Loot, Murder’ has been banned from teaching.
Patrick Lawler, in a Catholic newsletter, proclaimed that ‘all other religions are false’ and described abortion as a ‘great wickedness’, according to a decision by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).
The 62-year-old was found to have wrongly informed Year 6 students during a transition day to secondary school that Rosa Parks was a fictional character, that the famous 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’.
Most of the allegations relate to Lawler’s time as a history teacher at Bede Academy in Northumberland from 2015-20, but also include his stint in Bristol.
Despite receiving a warning letter in 2019 about his controversial views, he was later employed as a supply teacher by Monarch Education Recruitment Agency in Bristol and worked at Bristol Brunel Academy in Speedwell, part of the Cabot Learning Federation, reports Chronicle Live.
The Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) panel, which released its findings on Monday, January 5, revealed that the teacher had told Bristol students in September 2022 that there was no scientific evidence for Covid-19 and that one could consume unlimited amounts of salt without risk of poisoning – a claim he tried to prove by eating salt in front of the pupils.
The panel concluded that Lawler was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, which could damage the reputation of the teaching profession.
The report also highlighted his contribution to an article in 2015 for an online Catholic newsletter called The Flock. The article claimed ‘Catholicism is the one true religion and… all other religions are false, and of all the false religions Islam is demonstrably the most demonic’.
Further contentious statements included ‘anal copulation between two men is an unnatural, unhealthy, disgusting perversion’, ‘killing children in the womb by abortion is a great wickedness’ and that Islam was ‘Satanically inspired’.
The TRA found that Lawler had told Bede Academy students in December 2020 that ‘back in the day you used to be able to get cocaine purer’, a comment that had no relevance to the lesson being taught.
The decision was taken to ban Lawler from the profession indefinitely, with a minimum of four years before he could apply for reinstatement due to the ‘high risk of similar misconduct reoccurring’.
In confirming the decision, a civil servant writing on behalf of the Secretary of State stated: “The panel finds that the conduct of Mr Lawler fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.
“The findings of misconduct are serious as they include a teacher engaging in behaviour that sought to advance his own personal, often controversial, viewpoints over others, and reduce the standing of his own pupils.
“Patrick Lawler is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth-form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.”
Lawler did not attend the hearing and was without legal representation.
The TRA’s complete report is available here.
