Teacher sacked for ‘homophobic joke’ at £61k-a-year school found dead

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/teacher-sacked-homophobic-joke-61k-36273322

Posted by dailystar_news

39 comments

  1. As a retired semi professional homosexual I don’t find the stated comment offensive.

  2. Is the “joke” not just a blunt statement of fact? Would it be an offence to state “no gum, no homosexuality”; is there no room in society for light wordplay?

    Mental state of affairs.

  3. What was either homophobic or joking about stating the truth?

  4. Madness.

    He should have kicked up a PR fuss and sued them.

    Literally stated the laws of the countries, with the countries being the butt of the joke.

  5. Jesus was that all he said. Wasn’t even offensive. 

    You can beat the rap but you can’t beat the ride. 

  6. Was hardly offensive tbh, more just stating a fact than anything.

  7. When they said “inappropriate behaviour” I want expecting it to have been a statent of fact. Mental.

  9. More accurate to say was bullied to death by his employers HR department 

  10. It’s hard to grasp how this man would have felt without truly understanding the ostracism culture that comes along with the “posh” side of English culture. His whole life would have been turned upside by this. Why? Because we’re constantly running towards a society where jokes and certain facts cannot be stated anymore due to having to constantly keep up with the political status quo. This is a testament to this unfortunately.

  11. If anyone listened to Anatomy of a Cancellation this is what a lot of people who engage in cancel culture want. It’s not enough to be told off or lose your job in teaching. You have to kill yourself.

  13. Hes not making a joke at the expense of gay people. If anything hes raising awareness of the stupidity of the ban.

  14. So:

    • Man makes stupid joke about stupid Malaysian law

    • Man gets fired for unspecified “inappropriate conduct”, months later

    • Man suicides

    • Gutter press paper decides it’s all connected somehow

  15. How was the joke homophobic. Its literally the opposite of it.

  16. This is why I dont trust anyone at my current job. I dont care if my coworkers feelings are hurt by me keeping myself to myself.

  17. I am puzzled though cause as a gay man I dont find this offensive as it is tongue in cheek about the laws of the country they are in and if a school wants to say they don’t want homophobia why are you sending pupils to a country that criminalises homosexuality?

  18. How is “no gum, no gays” offensive? Is it not an accurate description of the laws of those countries they were visiting? I’m gay and would say the same thing

  19. For the lazy:

    >The Daily Mail reported that one of the comments made by Mr Wright that resulted in his dismissal was: “No gum, no gays.” Chewing gum is prohibited in Singapore, whilst homosexuality remains illegal in Malaysia.

    (During a school trip to both countries mentioned, made as a quick flippant comment according to the article)

  20. Not suspicious at all….

    Just as a show of hands do we think it was…..

    A) The Russians

    B) The Gays

    C) Wrigley’s gum

    D) Wrigley’s extreme wing “Wrigley’s fruit”

  21. I hope the pathetic wanker of a pupil who complained about him is crippled with guilt for the rest of their lives.

  22. Another reason why we could do with reforming how HR departments operate and who staffs them.

  23. Poor man. All he said was no gum, no gays which is exactly what the laws are over there. What he said was true, not flippant or anything else. Its not as if he said it with any of the olden words people use to use for gay. There was no need to escalate it so he was sacked.

    Who ever sacked him for that needs sacking themselves.

    How low must he have been to take his own life. RIP.

  24. How exactly was the alleged comment homophobic????? Straight answer……it’s not.

  25. Are we being fucking serious?

    “No gum, no gays”?

    Thats a sackable offence?

    What a fucking pisstake. Thats easily the most mundane homophobic joke imaginable, and is worth a slap on the wrist, not being thrown to the wolves, burning his career to the ground, and ultimately leading to a man killing himself

  26. Collateral damage of a country that has lost its bearings, its soul.

  27. How tragically sad, what he said was absolutely not offensive, let alone sackable.

  28. It’s not clear why he was sacked, and a source close to the school has said it’s more than what the LBC and mail hacks are reporting, but won’t be released, so I guess we’ll just have to put up with whatever the media want us to think about it.

    Some more:

    “Sources at the college insist that a number of allegations against Mr Wright were substantiated and that he was found to have made discriminatory comments, some of which were directed at pupils”

    Pupils accused him of racism and homophobia, directed at children. The college investigated and found they were substantiated, so he was fired for inappropriate conduct.

    Portraying that as a 4 word joke that killed him is ridiculously lazy journalism for clicks.

  29. It worth noting the guy who was sacked had apparently made a number of comments that were deemed as “inappropriate” yet the “no gum, no gays” in reference to Singapore is the only one provided as an example.

    While I do think that it is horrible that he took his own life in terms of why he was sacked there is not enough info provided to comment on this – yet this article and almost all the comments assume as though this was the only thing that was said.

    Given that only one example has been provided i would be willing to bet that there is a lot more behind this

  30. Whilst firing for that comment in that context seems wild the more interesting point is before the quote it says “ONE of the comments”.

    Knowing the publication and bias i imagine that is the least offensive thing he was in trouble for. Grpss misconduct is difficult to prove and no one gets fired for one off the cuff remark.

  31. As someone who chews a lot of gum, I can confirm I didn’t find it offensive

  32. I would bet the farm that neither the Daily Star nor the school is being entirely upfront about his conduct or the context here.

  33. Oh it’s the daily mail, they’re obviously going to be reporting 1% of the story and pretending it was one innocuous story to whip up fury amongst really fucking stupid people 

    And no one here is going to fall for it right 

  34. He was obviously a decent enough member of staff to trust to go abroad with kids!

    That’s outrageous, but men’s mental health as per doesn’t count.

  36. Handled shockingly badly, they have blood on their hands now.

  37. The people most offended by a joke are often not of the group that were the target of said joke.

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