Teacher banned after telling pupils gay and trans people are ‘mentally ill’
A teacher has been banned over comments about gay and trans people (Image: Getty Images, stock)
A teacher has been banned from the profession after he made discriminatory classroom remarks, including words to the effect of “gay and transgender people are mentally ill”.
William Garwood, 60, was teaching at St Mary’s Menston Catholic Voluntary Academy in West Yorkshire when the comments were made during a Year 11 history lesson in October 2023.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel heard that a pupil asked Garwood: “Are there any just wars?” and he replied: “Yes.”
A pupil account from a child referred to as Pupil A said Garwood told the class he was “happy” that Vladimir Putin was killing “satanic Nazis” in Ukraine, and claimed the world was run by billionaires who created “evil Ukrainians”.
The TRA found Garwood’s comments amounted to justification of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in front of pupils.
It also found that, during the same class, he said that “gay and transgender people are mentally ill”, or words to that effect. Garwood was also accused of saying words to the effect of “billionaires are the cause of transgenders and they print it in the media and influence people”, which the panel accepted he had “on the balance of probabilities”.
Garwood told the panel he was entitled to his religious belief as a Muslim and to the philosophical belief of anti-Nazism under Section 10 of the Equality Act 2010.
What the panel concluded
The panel said the remarks were “clearly inappropriate and wholly unrelated” to the lesson content, and delivered without balance or exploration of alternative perspectives.
In its reasoning, the panel said: “The panel noted that the remarks involved a significant and highly subjective value judgment, which had no relevance to the curriculum content being delivered.”
It added: “The panel also considered the comments relating to homosexuality and transgender people to be especially problematic given their potential impact on school-aged children, noting that this subject matter is one of common public discussion and sensitivity.”
The panel concluded: “As such, the panel concluded that the conduct was clearly inappropriate and significantly outside the bounds of acceptable teaching practice.”
Ban length and context
The TRA found the comments about Ukrainians and gay and transgender people “fell within the scope of discriminatory behaviour”. Garwood cannot apply for the banning order to be lifted until June 2032.
Educators in England can be prohibited from teaching following professional misconduct findings, typically after a TRA process and decision-maker sign-off. Similar disputes have reached the courts, including a High Court challenge involving a teacher who said being LGBTQ+ is a sin.
