Enoch Burke turns up to school again despite sacking - read OP before posting

I don't know how this lad will ever be taken seriously again in employment be it in education or outside of it.

Mainly because of how he dealt with the manner and how his mammy and daddy need to show up and cause a scene.

It's mad really when you consider that essentially this is about two people up against each other fighting for the exact same thing - the right to live freely, away from something society has pushed on them without their agreement.

HIS NAME IS ROBERT PAULSON

HIS NAME IS ROBERT PAULSON

HIS NAME IS ROBERT PAULSON

The school made a serious boo boo in having the Principal prepare a report that contained findings and conclusions without giving Burke the opportunity to respond.

They made a second and possibly more serious boo boo in reading and discussing that report at a board meeting, attended by the Principal but to which Burke was not invited.

Both of those issues will cause the school a big headache going forward as it can be argued that the report is flawed and that Burke didn't get fair play because it was discussed in advance of a disciplinary hearing. I don't know how the school will overcome that. This ain't finished by a long shot.

Why should he have been invited to the Board meeting? He's not a Board member.

If the issue really was the use of pronouns, he could have just decided not to use they/them, and then dealt with the consequences of that. At that point (assuming there were any consequences) he could have made an actual case about his beliefs conflicting with the instruction.

But as it is, he decided to make a big scene and get himself suspended for that instead - probably knowing full well that he wouldn't have been suspended for the use of any pronouns (and knowing that it was rare that he'd be in the position to use the pronouns in the course of his work in the first place).

This has nothing to do with the actual use of pronouns, and everything to do with the Burkes' ongoing theatrics around their religious and social persecution complex and desire for publicity.

Nothing was pushed on him. We all have to comply with workplace policies, whether we individually agree or not. All he had to do was not engage with a pupil who isn't in his class. He's not the victim here.

Thinking about this, the clever thing for the school board to do would be to suspend Burke without pay until such time as he apologises for his behaviour and commits to following school policy in relation to addressing pupils.

Can't imagine that he's a signed up member of ASTI or TUI.

Though indefinite suspension doesn't sound feasible. I hope the school are getting expert HR/legal advice, as the man on the street, or the man on Boards really has little clue about how best to progress this.

I definitely wouldn't call him a victim. Generally when there's an adult and a child scenario, the victim is the child and the adult is someone who should know better.

But I'm not sure I agree with your take that it wasn't something pushed on him. I know for example, if I were a teacher in a school where Enoch was a principle who was surrounded by like-minded people, and they created a policy that told me to ignore a student's pronoun preference, I'm trying to think about how I'd feel about it, or what I'd do about it. Wouldn't you tell Enoch that you disagree with the policy and you wouldn't be going along with it? Part of me feels like I should be able to do that without being suspended.

But maybe you're right.. Maybe I'd just agree with whatever they're asking me to do but then live life according to my own belief system. There are quite a lot of teachers out there who do that on a day to day basis. For example, I think there's a policy that says you can't hug students anymore. But I know many teachers of baby and junior infants who nod along to such requests but know rightly that if there's a 5 year old in their class who has fallen over and just needs a bit of comfort, they're going to give them a hug to help them through the moment.