School reports chaplain to anti-terror unit after telling pupils they can disagree with LGBT teachin

A SCHOOL priest was reported to the anti-terrorism Prevent programme after delivering a sermon in which he told pupils they were allowed to disagree with new LGBT policies.

The Reverend Dr Bernard Randall, 48, told pupils at Trent College near Nottingham that they were entitled to disagree with the measures.

The school later flagged Dr Randall to the Prevent programme which identifies those at risk of radicalisation - but police found he posed “no counter-terrorism risk”, the Mail on Sunday reports.

Derbyshire Police said the case “did not meet the threshold for a Prevent referral”.

Dr Randall also claimed that the school warned him that future sermons would be censored in advance and he was later dismissed - leaving his “career and life” in “tatters”. 

He is suing the school for discrimination, harassment, victimisation and unfair dismissal with his case set to be heard next month.

During the sermon, delivered in June 2019, Dr Randall told pupils: “You should no more be told you have to accept LGBT ideology, than you should be told you must be in favour of Brexit, or must be Muslim.”

But he stressed that pupils “need to treat each other with respect” regardless of their beliefs. 

Dr Randall had learnt of the Prevent referral in documents given to him ahead of a disciplinary hearing, and told the Mail on Sunday he had “visions of being investigated by MI5, of men knocking down the front door”.

The chaplain had joined the school in 2015 to provide pastoral care and lead the school’s services.  

He claimed his sermon had been prompted by concerns over an organisation named Educate & Celebrate, run by Dr Elly Barnes, which was invited to provide LGBT inclusion training in the school. 

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Dr Randall later alleged he had been sidelined from the programme when he said some of its belief were contrary to Christian values. 

Former Education Minister Sir John Hayes told the Mail On Sunday that, if the claims were true, the school had “behaved appallingly”. 

Trent College declined to comment to the newspaper. 

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