A schoolteacher in England was reportedly referred to the United Kingdom’s counter-terrorism programme and accused of a potential “hate crime” after he showed his students Donald Trump videos.
Henley College, which teaches sixth-form students aged between 16 and 18 years old, reported the unnamed teacher to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), which in turn found that his views “could be perceived as radical” and therefore should be referred to the government’s Prevent anti-terror programme, The Telegraph reported.
The programme is was established to stop individuals, particularly young people, from becoming radicalised and going down the path leading to extremism and terrorism.
According to the broadsheet, the LADO report said: “There is concern that this behaviour could cause harm to a child, there could be a criminal offence from the views which could constitute a hate crime and it’s possible that his promoting of views could be radicalisation.”
Among the videos shown to the U.S. Politics class were a video of President Trump’s inauguration and the ‘Daddy’s Home’ music video by Canadian ‘MAGA’ rapper Tom MacDonald, which featured Trump-supporting American comedian Roseanne Barr.
In April, Henley College reportedly sent the teacher a formal letter notifying him that he had been accused of misconduct. The letter is said to have accused the teacher of causing “emotional harm… to your students as a result of you sharing inappropriate content (especially videos) with them and having a lack of balance when presenting political views with an emphasis on Right-wing, potentially extremist views.”
“There is concern that this behaviour could cause harm to a child, there could be a criminal offence from the views which could constitute a hate crime and it’s possible that his promoting of views could be radicalisation,” the letter added.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the teacher said that while his political leanings align more with Republicans in the United States, he denied being an extremist. He accused the school of having a “complete left-wing bias,” adding that “they don’t tolerate anything about Donald Trump.”
“They likened me to a terrorist. It was completely jarring. It’s dystopian, like something from a George Orwell novel,” he said.
“It was just terrifying; just mind-boggling. We were discussing the US election, Trump had just won and I showed a couple of videos from the Trump campaign. Next thing, I was accused of bias. One of the students said they were emotionally disturbed and claimed to have had nightmares.”
Ultimately, the teacher was forced to resign from his position at the school after receiving a £2,000 payoff.
It comes as the Trump administration has been heavily critical of the state of free speech in Europe and the UK. Earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance warned in his landmark Munich Security Conference address that free speech in Britain and Europe is “in retreat.”
Vance warned that the greatest threat to Europe was not Communist China or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but rather from “within”, from those who would seek to undermine the “fundamental values” of Western civilization.
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