Teacher jailed for refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns is arrested after ... trends now
Teacher Enoch Burke has been arrested for alleged trespass in a manner ‘likely to cause fear’ after returning to the school that has already dismissed him for gross misconduct.
Mr Burke, who has been involved in a long and ongoing battle at the High Court following his refusal to refer to a gender-transitioning student as ‘they’, was dismissed from Wilson’s Hospital School last week.
In a letter to him which emerged over the weekend, the student council told him his ongoing attendance at the school was causing huge disruption, was affecting learning and was a daily reminder to its LGBTQI+ students of the prejudice they experienced.
However, Mr Burke returned to the Westmeath secondary school yesterday – not just once, but twice.
Burke is pictured outside the gates at Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath. He turned up at the school in Multyfarnham this morning, despite being dismissed from his position at the school last Friday
Enoch Burke, who was previously jailed after failing to observe a court injunction banning him from attending Wilson's Hospital school in Co Westmeath when he was suspended from work, was informed last Friday of his dismissal from his position as teacher
He first pulled up at the gates in a car driven by his father shortly after 8.30am.
Uniformed gardaí arrived at the school in an unmarked car at around 11.15am and were met at the door by school principal Frank Milling.
Mr Burke was arrested in the school courtyard and was taken to Mullingar Garda Station at around 12.30pm.
But after he was released by the gardaí at around 2pm, he was driven by his father straight back to the school.
The school gates had been closed by then, and while standing outside he gave his account of events to reporters.
He said: ‘The gardaí came to this school this morning, and they came down this driveway and they pulled up and they greeted the principal, and he ushered them into his office.’
Mr Burke said they spent 45 minutes in the office, ‘and then they came out to me and said, “We have made a decision that you are trespassing in such a way as is likely to cause fear.”’
He claimed the allegation was ‘totally preposterous’ and that it had been made without any observation of the situation.
Burke is pictured standing outside school gates today
Burke is pictured walking back to the school. Gardaí arrived at the school at 11.15am and left at 12.41pm, with Mr Burke in the back of an unmarked car
