History teacher Roy Huggins can’t stop having night terrors. The last episode was two weeks ago. His wife Julie reached out to him as he lay beside her shouting and screaming in bed.
‘I just try to calm him like this,’ says Julie, rubbing his shoulder gently. ‘I say, ‘It’s OK, it’s OK’ and try to stop him because sometimes he jumps out of bed. It’s been terrible. We’ve had several times over the last few months where you felt your heart was going to explode, haven’t we?’ Julie’s anguish for her husband is writ large on her face.
For the past two months, Roy, a truly dedicated, 54-year-old teacher who hasn’t so much as received a verbal warning in his outstanding 32-year career, has been worrying himself sick as he faced an investigation by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) which has the power to ban teachers from working with children.
His crime? Telling a class of 11 and 12-year-olds, during a science lesson about how a body changes in puberty: that women have wider hips to allow them to child bear and men have broader shoulders to carry their extra muscle.
Being the sort of gifted teacher who contextualises learning, he gave examples about the size his grandson Joey was at birth and how his 23-year-old son Thomas gains muscle more easily in the gym than he can, as an older man, with less testosterone.
He also drew upon his experience as a history teacher, explaining that archaeologists identify a male and female skeleton by looking at the size of the hips and the shoulders. In short, he told the children biological facts.
But, unknown to Roy, who was working part-time as a supply teacher at Retford Oaks Academy in Nottinghamshire and was filling in for an absent colleague, two children in the class had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Several pupils lodged complaints about ‘inappropriate’ comments he made in the lesson which caused offence.
Two weeks later he received a letter from the DBS stating: ‘We have received information from Retford Oaks Academy about allegations of a safeguarding concern about comments made whilst teaching a class.
‘We are now considering whether to include you in one or both barred lists [the Children’s and/or Adults’ Barred Lists]. Inclusion in either or both of these lists will prevent you from engaging in regulated activity.’
After previously being graded by Ofsted as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good to outstanding’ in 27 inspections, Roy was sent into such a state of shock by the letter, his legs would not support him and he fell to his knees.
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