Jailed Co. Mayo school teacher Enoch Burke has mounted a legal challenge against Wilson’s Hospital School in Co. Westmeath over the school’s disciplinary proceedings.
Mr Burke, who has been employed as a teacher at the Church of Ireland boarding school for four years, was suspended on full pay on 24 August, pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings against him. It came after he publicly confronted the then principal to express his opposition to a request to call a transgender student a new name and use the ‘they’ pronoun.
After being suspended, Burke continued to present for work. Burke’s school subsequently sought, and was granted an injunction preventing the history and German teacher from attending or teaching, pending the outcome of a disciplinary process.
Mr. Burke did not comply with this injunction, which led to his arrest. Appearing in court last week, the defiant teacher told the court he could not comply with the order as it would be in violation of his conscience.
On September 5, he was indefinitely committed to Mountjoy Prison by Judge Michael Quinn, having been found in contempt of court.
In a hearing on 7 September, he told the court he would not comply to the school’s transgender policy even if it meant he had to remain in prison for “every hour of every day for the next 100 years”.
Representing himself in court following spending the night in prison, he said transgenderism is contrary to scripture, and that he would “only obey God,” and “not obey man”.
The High Court will now hear a challenge by Mr Burke to his school’s decision to suspend him following the voicing of his opposition to using transgender pronouns.
Mr Burke had hoped he could be set free from Mountjoy today after making an application to the court, however a judge decided that the earliest his challenge can be heard would be this Wednesday (14 September).
In a counterclaim against Wilson’s Hospital School, Mr Burke sought various injunctions and declarations, which would have forbade the board of management from continuing with its disciplinary process against him.
On Monday, Mr Burke was ordered to be brought to court from Mountjoy by Mr Justice Conor Dignam after the judge was made aware of an “urgent” counterclaim by Isaac Burke, Mr Burke’s brother. Isaac Burke said the matter was “urgent” because a disciplinary meeting was due to take place on Wednesday.
Mr Burke said that if his bid to overturn the suspension is successful, there would be no basis for the court order directing him to stay away from the school. Speaking at the High Court today, he told the Judge that the disciplinary proceedings brought against him by the school were both ‘unconstitutional and unlawful’.
“The effect would be to vacate the order, effectively freeing me from Mountjoy,’ he said, adding: “I would be back in the classroom tomorrow.”
At today’s 4pm hearing, Judge Dignam said that Burke’s school should be put on notice of the intended proceedings. At the hearing, Rosemary Mallon BL, for the school’s board of management, told the court that the disciplinary meeting set to be held in the Mullingar Park Hotel had been postponed indefinitely, given that Mr Burke had previously indicated that he had no intention of purging his contempt to be released from Mountjoy.
She added that no further meeting would take place without giving the teacher at least three days’ notice.
Mr Burke told the court that he was seeking a total of four injunctions. The first was to restrain the school’s board of management from holding its meeting on Wednesday; the second was to restrain the school from placing him on, or continuing, administrative leave; thirdly, he sought an injunction against the school’s disciplinary process; and the fourth was to restrain the school from dismissing him.
He also sought declarations that his administrative leave breached his constitutional rights, and that it was ‘unfair, unjust and unlawful’. He further sought a declaration that the school was in breach of the Department of Education’s rules in relation to disciplinary actions.
Learning he would be returning to Mountjoy, he declared: “I should be going home with my father and my brother this evening, and yet…”
Because the school agreed not to proceed without notifying Mr Burke, Judge Dignam said it was not necessary for him to deal with the injunctions sought regarding disciplinary process or possible dismissal.
On the allegation that the suspension was unlawful, he said the court could not proceed without further evidence, including a replying affidavit from the school. He subsequently adjourned the injunction request regarding Mr Burke’s administrative leave until tomorrow, when the teacher is due back before the High Court to be asked whether or not he will agree to purge his contempt.