A teacher has been referred to the Prevent counter-terror programme as a risk to children and forced out of his job after showing sixth-form students Donald Trump videos in a class on US politics and propaganda. Very not good! The Telegraph has the story.
A teacher in an English school was accused of posing a risk to children and referred to the Government’s counter-terrorism programme after showing Donald Trump videos to his US politics class.
The teacher, who is in his 50s, has told the Telegraph he was “likened to a terrorist” after showing the videos, including one of Mr Trump’s inauguration, to A-level students.
Henley College, a sixth-form in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, with more than 2,000 students, reported the politics lecturer to the local child safeguarding authority, which concluded a referral to Prevent, the Government’s counter-terrorism programme, was a “priority”.
The teacher was accused of causing his A-level students, aged 17 and 18, “emotional harm”. In one document, seen by the Telegraph, local officials in charge of child protection suggested the showing of the videos could amount to a “hate crime”.
The extraordinary claims prompted the teacher, who first qualified in the mid-1990s, to begin a grievance procedure against the college. In a negotiated settlement, it gave him a £2,000 payoff after effectively forcing him to resign from his £44,000-a-year post.
His case is the latest uncovered by the Telegraph in which child protection laws have seemingly been used to try to ban adults with alleged Right-wing views from working with children.
The Free Speech Union believes the laws, intended to protect children from murderers and rapists, are being wrongly used to go after adults with unfashionable opinions. It said the teacher’s case was a clear example of child safeguarding protocols “being weaponised to silence someone for political reasons”.
The teacher, who does not wish to be identified, said: “They likened me to a terrorist. It was completely jarring. It’s dystopian, like something from a George Orwell novel.”
Documents seen by the Telegraph show how Henley College began its investigations in January 2025 after complaints were made by two of the lecturer’s students. He was accused of “biased” and “off topic” teaching.
The college said in an official email dated Jan 28 that he was alleged “to have shown your students videos of Donald Trump, his campaign, propaganda and other videos which are unrelated to what is being taught”.
The college then claimed that one of the videos had “made one of the students feel quite uncomfortable”.
The teacher 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.”
Asked if he was a far-Right extremist, the teacher, a practising Catholic who admits he is a Republican supporter but is adamant that his views are mainstream, said: “I am not an extremist.”
He accused the college of a “complete Left-wing bias”, adding: “They don’t tolerate anything about Donald Trump.”
The college referred the case to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), the official in charge of investigating safeguarding concerns.
The LADO report, dated May 22, said the teacher’s views “could be perceived as radical” and that Henley College “should complete a Prevent referral”.
It went on: “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.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: You can watch the supposedly offending video for yourself here.
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LOL at “unfashionable opinions” – Trump became the president of the United States for a second time, because he was elected by the majority of the population. How is that an “unfashionable opinion”? Please stop using the language our enemies use to falsely describe us.