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A British teacher was referred to an anti-terrorism watchdog for showing his students videos of Donald Trump.
Henley College, which teaches 16 to 18 year olds, reported the teacher to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), who decided the teacher’s behaviour “could be perceived as radical” and then in turn reported him to the government’s Prevent anti-terror program.
Prevent was established to stop individuals from being “radicalized” and committing acts of terrorism.
According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, the LADO’s report stated that “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 videos included a video of Trump’s inauguration and a video by a Canadian rapper that featured comedienne and Trump supporter Roseanne Barr.
The teacher was accused of misconduct in a letter sent to him by Henley College in April. The letter said he had caused “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.”
Speaking to the Telegraph, the teacher denied being an “extremist” and said the college had a “complete left-wing bias.”
“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.”
The teacher was forced to resign from the school and received a £2,000 payment.
The Trump administration has been deeply critical of the UK government in recent months, accusing it of restricting freedom of speech and persecuting patriotic British men and women.
Over the summer, a State Department reported accused the UK government of imposing “serious restrictions” on freedom of speech, curtailing other human rights and enforcing “two-tier” policing.
Vice President JD Vance condemned the UK government for enforcing “safe access zones” around abortion clinics and arresting people for holding silent prayer vigils in them, and President Trump described UK laws, including the new Online Safety Act, as “not a good thing.”
US officials have met with representatives from the UK regulator Ofcom to express concerns the Online Safety Act could be used to infringe the First Amendment rights of Americans.
