Exclusive: Maths Teacher Gears Up To Slap College In The Courts Over "Transphobia" Sacking
The story of Kevin Lister.
When mathematician and father of two, Kevin Lister, went to work one day in September 2021, he faced a situation that would change his life for the foreseeable future.
A 17-year-old female student told him she wanted to be addressed by a different name – a male one.
Kevin, like any responsible teacher, voiced his concerns to New College Swindon. He inquired if the student's parents knew about her wishes and whether they approved. He also expressed worries about her potential self-medication with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, actions that would breach the college’s drug policy.
A landmark study published in 2020 (nine years after it was conducted) by the disgraced Tavistock clinic showed puberty blockers made no difference in psychological functioning. In short, it debunked their purported benefits.
Additional studies revealed heightened thoughts of self-harm and suicide among children on the drugs. In 2019, Oxford professor Michale Biggs FOI’d data Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) had based treatment on, concluding that children “were not given the information they needed in order to take this momentous life-changing step.”
This incident marked the first domino in what would eventuate into widespread acknowledgment of safeguarding failures across the NHS and various schools.
Three days post his safeguarding complaints, New College Swindon administrators told Kevin the student’s parents would not be informed about her name change. Nor would they be informed of their child’s intention to identify as the opposite sex and potentially transition. As their guidelines simply state staff should, “maintain confidentiality and only tell others about the person’s trans status with their permission”.
In 2022, Kevin shared his attempt to be accommodating:
“As a parent, I would have been furious. Shortly after this, the college’s safeguarding policy was updated to say we had to work in partnership with parents. I was now in a really difficult position.
I knew there was no parental consent, but I also knew I would be in trouble for ‘deadnaming’ (using her previous name), so when I needed her attention in class, I’d gesture at her — something the college later said was ‘harassment by pointing’.”
The student even approached him about signing up to a girls-only maths competition. To which he replied, “of course you can”. Naturally, such an approach made him query if the student was backtracking. The matter seemed to be dissipating.
In January 2022, however, the issue reared its head. During class, when Kevin addressed the student, a classmate demanded that he refer to her with a male name and pronouns, still without parental consent. When he repeated his concerns, the friend filed a complaint with the pastoral tutor.
And so, the witch hunt began. Other activist teachers then grouped together and accused Kevin of that fateful crime, “transphobia” - a word activists now apply to people who use accurate biological terminology alongside those who genuinely discriminate.
Days later, in February 2022, the college suspended him on full-pay. A few months later, they sacked him, citing “gross misconduct”. The college even kindly reported him to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for a “safeguarding violation”.
With an impeccable 18-year teaching history, Kevin found himself marooned.
There was no written guidance for him adhere to. Instead, the college expected teachers to navigate the issue exclusively. The last guidance issued to schools in 2020 by The Department of Education (DfE) tells educators to work in tandem with parents on any decisions concerning a child’s treatment. Kevin tried to follow that directive.
Just a week ago, a de-transitioned woman, Luka Hein, announced her lawsuit against US doctors who gave her a double mastectomy as a child. Luka was given the irreversible operation at 16 and says the surgery has left her with daily pain. Permanent scars, a deep voice, and possible infertility are some of the permanent consequences she has to live with.
It is clear from his testimony that Kevin attempted to fulfil his duty of care as a teacher. He did not dissent to using male pronouns in personal protest but because of current guidance, which is both limited and dated. Many will also agree he did so using common sense.
Luka’s experience highlights a system totally lacking in safeguards. Her teachers, doctors, and representatives failed her. The unchecked influence of trans-activists and negligent clinicians resulted in a life devastated.
In Kevin’s area, recent FOI requests reveal the town has one of the highest gender referrals rates in Britain. In 2019, the national average stood at 32 per 100,000 under-18s. For Swindon, it stood at 66 per 100,000 - almost double that of the national rate.
Swindon’s status as an outlier further justifies Kevin’s caution. Logic dictates there must be something occurring in Swindon that is not elsewhere. So further scrutiny over transitioning seems warranted. Couple this with the fact that the more gender referrals there are, the higher the chances of incidences of safeguarding failures and “false positives”, and Kevin’s position appears all the more appropriate.
When speaking to GB News in September 2022, he stated:
It almost as though this thing has developed such powerful momentum that it’s difficult to stop it... It seems to me, this is just my speculation, that the management of certain schools, certain colleges, have been pushing this transgender model so hard over recent years that for them now to turn round and say “well actually we’ve made a mistake, these people are suffering harm and damage”, it is too much of a liability for them. So the easiest thing for management to do to protect their job is to keep this momentum going and pretend nothing is happening.
This would suggest, far from Kevin breaking safeguarding protocols, the college sacked him for inadvertently exposing their own safeguarding breaches.
To circumvent liability, it seems colleges are adopting the pseudo-fascistic stance and ousting the very few teachers who are ethical and still brave enough to ask questions.
His intervention might have made the student reconsider, potentially steering her away from a surgical transition and life-long regret. Had Luka been Kevin's student, she might have avoided her pain.
Speaking exclusively to The Stark Naked Brief, Kevin said:
“The fact that a minority who believe in nonsense can take control of the institutions that our society depends upon is a sobering lesson. To put this in perspective, our education system, health service, police, political parties, media and unions have all capitulated to this junta of perverts and pedophiles. I now know how the people of Germany must have felt when the Nazi’s took over and dismantled all the institutions of the state, one after the other.
Losing my job and being referred to the DBS as a safeguarding danger is not the hardest thing about this ordeal. The hardest thing is seeing the harm it has caused to young people, seeing the education system being destroyed and seeing society being torn apart.”
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan's recent choice to conceal the findings of an independent report on pre-college sex education cements these concerns. Britain’s institutions are preventing open examination of biased educational content that might be fuelling transition surges. Some speculate that it is due to fears of alienating voter bases with a general election around the corner.
Coincidentally, Swindon came under the spotlight in August for distributing inappropriate and potentially illegal sex education materials back in 2022. I spoke to a number of locals and identified who was behind it here:
Kevin is now taking legal action against the college for unfair dismissal, direct discrimination, and indirect discrimination. He has reported preliminary hearings have been held with the judge agreeing to list the case. His tribunal date is set for 18th March 2024.
He is litigating in person and doesn’t require funds but encourages those willing and able to chip in towards the lawsuit ten parents have initiated against DfE.
In their lawsuit, they allege the department has “failed to act to prevent serious harm to children in violation of its own statutory guidance and the law, which prioritises child safeguarding and prohibits political indoctrination.”
You can make a contribution here via the Democracy Three website.
As for Swindon college administrators, perhaps they should stop beating around the bush and don a uniform reflective of their policy...
Fantastic article
Every one on the planet needs to read this
'Teacher to slap college in court over "Transphobia" sacking' - for double alliteration impact :)
Great article!