A Newnham teacher has been sacked after he taught students ‘flat Earth theory and shared awful opinions that LGBTQ+ people were ‘descended from the Antichrist’ as seen by students in a series of YouTube videos. Robert Headley taught Design and Technology at Rokeby School for boys in Canning Town from 2008 but in early 2019 it emerged that he was teaching flat Earth theory – the scientifically disproven theory that the Earth is disc-shaped.

Pupils raised concerns themselves that Mr. Headley was promoting flat Earth theory and claiming the moon landings were fake but had asked them to ‘keep these discussions confidential, an employment tribunal published on March 2 reads. One of the school’s deputy headteachers, Jo Doyle, discovered a YouTube channel where Mr. Headley, under his own name, was promoting “discriminatory views” against LGBTQ+ people and various ethnicities, which she found hurtful, particularly as she is herself openly gay. 

Among the statements made on Mr. Headley’s YouTube channel are: “Jews, Scribes, and Pharisees are of the devil”, ” What is found in the DNA of Satan, like your LGBT, like your antichrist”. Ms. Doyle wrote in her report: “To see a member of staff saying derogatory, divisive and hateful things about LGBT and Christian community on a public platform distressed, upset and saddened me. 

“I am comfortable with who I am, but I am more concerned with the effect these views might have on younger members of staff, students, and families. There are some very vulnerable boys and young staff who may be exploring their sexuality and questioning it and it is important that they are not judged or made to feel that they are evil.” 

Mr. Headley’s YouTube channel currently contains 816 videos dating back a few years, where he can regularly be seen proselytising his views. He has just a few thousand followers. His early videos were filmed in the DT classroom he taught from, where he could be seen wearing the school logo sitting in front of a noticeboard that included pictures of staff members. 

Another deputy headteacher, Emma Hobbs, discovered the videos and asked him to stop filming on school premises as she was concerned they would appear affiliated with the school. However, she did not watch the video in full. It was only when Ms. Doyle watched the videos further that Mr. Headley’s conduct become officially flagged. 

Mr. Headley was sacked on July 16, 2019, after a panel with the school governors, but he bought forward a claim that he was wrongly dismissed. The employment tribunal report published this month says Mr. Headley was not wrongly dismissed as his views do, as the school claimed, go against the school’s values of inclusivity. 

‘Mr Headley made public statements over a number of years’

The report reads: “We accept that it would be difficult if not impossible to promote values of plurality and openness to students when it was known that a senior teacher publicly denounced LGBTQ+ people, Jews, and Catholics as being evil or the descendants or followers of Satan.

“There was evidence, which we accepted, that there were a number of openly gay students at the school. We find that there were reasonable grounds for finding that students were aware of the channel.”

The investigators in the case pointed to Thank you cards written by pupils addressed to Mr. Headley, which did reference them subscribing to his YouTube channel. The report adds: “[Mr. Headley] has made public statements over a number of years. We accept that the cumulative effect of those statements is such that it seriously damaged the employment relationship.”

In his attempts to claim unlawful dismissal, Mr. Headley argued he was teaching flat Earth theory to “teach students perspective”. He brought a claim that his dismissal was an act of unlawful direct discrimination because of his religious beliefs

To this end, the employment judge wrote: “We conclude that the treatment of the claimant was not because of religion or belief. The reasons for the dismissal are in our view entirely [separate] from the beliefs themselves and are solely because those beliefs were manifested in a manner entirely inconsistent with [Mr. Headley’s] position as a senior teacher at a multicultural secondary school. Had he chosen to express himself in other terms the outcome might have been very different.

“The school was entitled to conclude that its own interests in promoting pluralism and the welfare of its students were a sufficient reason for restricting the claimant’s rights to manifest his religious beliefs and/or express his opinions in public in the manner that he did. He must bear responsibility for the way he has chosen to express himself.”