Joanna Rossiter Joanna Rossiter

Why aren’t the teaching unions speaking out about Batley?

(Photo: Getty)

‘Sadly, his life here in Batley is over. Even if he gets his job back, how can he possibly return to Batley Grammar School? It will be far too risky. And how will he be able to walk around the town with his kids, doing normal things knowing that he could be killed?’

These were the harrowing words of the father of Batley Grammar’s suspended RE teacher yesterday. It’s hard to believe that a professional working in a liberal democracy like Britain, whose only ‘crime’ was to use a drawing to start a class discussion, is now facing a lifetime of police protection, unable to return to work and living in fear for his family’s life.

When it comes to certain faiths and orthodoxies, our values of free speech and scrutiny are hurled out of the window

More shocking still has been the lack of support from the teaching unions in response to this teacher’s treatment. His family has accused the headteacher of Batley Grammar of ‘throwing him under a bus’, which seems to be an apt description of what the unions have done too. Despite offering ‘support’ to the suspended teacher, Britain’s largest teaching union the NEU is yet to condemn his treatment, saying that while the school is investigating the incident ‘it would not be appropriate to make any further comment.’ This is the same Union that loudly protested about the reopening of schools on the grounds of teacher safety in January due to the pandemic. How tragic that, when a member of their profession’s life is genuinely and imminently at risk, they have not spoken out against threats made against teachers. Perhaps they were too busy calling for the abolition of GCSEs, which the union was pushing for on Friday, less than 24 hours after Batley Grammar School announced the teacher’s suspension.

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