A schoolteacher who refused to use a transgender pupil’s pronouns is to remain in jail, after saying he would ignore a court order barring him from his workplace.
Evangelical Christian Enoch Burke was suspended from his job at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath last month, after objecting to a request from the principal to address a transgender child by their name and use the pronoun “they”.
Mr Burke was committed to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin on Monday by order of a High Court judge, after he breached a temporary court order that he was to stay away from his workplace and not to attend the classroom.
On Wednesday, the board of management of the school was granted a renewed interlocutory injunction preventing him from attending the premises of the school.
But Mr Burke indicated to the court he has no intention of following the court orders.
Mr Justice Max Barrett agreed to continue the interlocutory injunction, adding the matter was not about his views on transgenderism but rather his refusal to obey the terms of the suspension and the court-ordered injunction.
“If this court so determines, I will never leave Mountjoy Prison if in leaving the prison I violate my well-informed conscience and religious belief and deny my God.
“It seems to me that I can be a Christian in Mountjoy Prison or be a pagan and acceptor of transgenderism outside of it. I know where I belong. My faith has led me to that place and will keep me there.”
He told the court that if that choice was put to him “every hour of every day for next 100 years”, he would answer the question the same.
Mr Burke added: “This court is seeking to deprive me of my religious beliefs.”
He also claimed there was an “unlawful attempt” to persecute him for stating his opposition to transgenderism, and that the court was depriving him of his liberty and dignity.
“I have spent the last two nights in prison,” he added. “As you will appreciate that is new experience for me as a law-abiding citizen.
“I have had much time to consider my actions and behaviour that brought me to that place and far from finding any instances of misconduct, let alone gross misconduct, I only found my actions to be commendable and that I had the courage to respond to the principal telling her that transgender was an abuse of children and a breach of my constitutional rights to free expression of religious beliefs.”
Mr Burke told the court that what he was being asked to do was “contrary to the work of God”.
“My belief is that there are two genders, that is my religious belief and our constitution makes room for that belief,” he continued.
“This court can’t deprive me of my religion and can’t deprive me of my dignity, it can’t deprive me of my faith in God.”
He further claimed the decision of the school has damaged his “good name and blackened my character and also stained my record as a teacher”.
Barrister Rosemary Mallon, counsel for the school’s board of management, said that it was “very clear” from Mr Burke’s commentary that he does not intend to abide by the court order. She said that he “knowingly and wilfully” breached the order.
She also said that the school was left with no option but to pursue court action when he continuously attended the school.
Ms Mallon stressed the case was not about transgenderism.
“This was not about his beliefs,” she added. “He may argue about his beliefs, but it is about his alleged conduct.”
She said the decision to place him on paid administrative leave was lawful and it had the effect of restraining him from attending the school premises.
“I also say that what Mr Burke, in opposing this application, is doing is asking the court to interfere with the disciplinary process,” Ms Mallon continued. “Mr Burke is asking the court to interfere and to say ‘don’t let the suspension have effect. Let me sit in the classroom and teach’.
“That is interfering and it is not the function of this court to do at such an early stage of the disciplinary process.”
The judge adjourned the matter to next Wednesday. He said that Mr Burke could come back to court before then if he wanted to purge his contempt.
