In a world where nobody knows where to go to the bathroom anymore and we’re allowing 8-year-olds to decide whether they wanna self-identify as boys, girls or pineapples, Joshua Sutcliffe’s story may come as no surprise.
Nevertheless, the British math teacher’s ‘misgendering’ debacle is one that needs to be heard—out of the sheer ridiculousness that ignited it.
“Absolutely fantastic job, girls,” Joshua Sutfliffe is heard saying.
Those are precisely the words that Sutcliffe used to encourage a small group of females who had excelled on a recent test.
And those are the same words that have led to the accusation that he demonstrated “discriminatory behaviors” and “contravened the school’s equality policy.”
It turns out, one of those girls wished to be identified as a boy, and Mr. Sutcliffe had a slip-up. Though he profusely apologized to the student after his mistake, the damage had been done. An investigation was launched, and he was officially suspended from teaching as it was conducted.
“I was absolutely shocked to be told by the head that I was under investigation,” said Sutcliffe. “I didn’t know what was happening. It was surreal. I said it was only one incident for which I had apologized, but he insisted the investigation would go ahead.”
“I have been sat in detention now for six days and it is like solitude,” he added. “It’s like I have been publically shamed.”
The 27-year-old math teacher who is also a pastor of an evangelical church in Oxford felt his career crumbling beneath his feet over a comment that he merely intended to be uplifting.
The girl who wished to be identified as a boy had previously scored the lowest test score in the class, and that particular time had scored the highest. Thus, he wanted to include her in the small tutorial group he was addressing by congratulating them. He had never been specifically informed or instructed to refer to the particular student as a boy, so to be reprimanded so harshly for this unknown offense seemed very extreme.
