A newly constituted appeals committee, due last Saturday to hear Enoch Burke’s appeal of his dismissal by Wilson’s Hospital School, had to be postponed after the teacher sought a review of a Court of Appeal (CoA) decision, the High Court heard.
The court also heard that formal orders seeking the jailing for contempt of his mother, Martina, brother Isaac, his sister Ammi, as well as Mr Burke himself, over their conduct in court in recent weeks when they repeatedly interrupted proceedings, are to be considered, Mr Justice Cregan said on Wednesday.
Mr Burke had already been facing an application by the school to have him sent back to prison – where he has already spent more than 500 days at different intervals over the last three years – for his continuing contempt by turning up at the school every day in breach of orders.
He claims his actions are the result of a school directive that he use a new name for a transgender pupil and use the they/them pronoun. He says this is a breach of his constitutional rights, including his right to freedom of religion/conscience.
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He is facing further separate applications for contempt over his behaviour in court and for again returning to the school where a security guard is now employed daily to prevent him from gaining access to the premises.
Rosemary Mallon, for the school board, said a disciplinary appeals panel set up to hear Mr Burke’s appeal against dismissal had been scheduled to take place on November 8th. That panel was set up to replace another which Mr Burke had successfully challenged in the CoA over alleged bias of one of its members, who Mr Burke claimed was a supporter of transgender rights.
This latest objection by Mr Burke is in relation to the new panel member, Geraldine O’Brien, on grounds of objective bias but which is rejected by the disciplinary panel.
The new panel hearing had to be postponed when Mr Burke said he had submitted an “intended review application” of a CoA decision related to his case. Ms Mallon said the review appears to be sought in relation to another case over the membership of the panel which Mr Burke had lost but which he is now conflating with the most recent CoA decision which he won.
All this means that Mr Burke continues to be paid his teacher’s salary, counsel said.
Ms Mallon said none of the Burke family had been seen in court on Wednesday, but the principal had written to say Mr Burke arrived that morning and it was unknown if he had gained access to the premises or was standing outside.
However, she said, he had not followed last week’s court direction to provide a statement of his means in order to assess whether to adjust the €1,400 daily fine that the court has imposed on him for attending the school and now amounts to more than €225,000.
Counsel also said there will be order sought sequestering a Hyundai and a Nissan car which were used to drive Burke family members on to the school grounds, an order for payment of a €15,000 fine for trespass imposed by the High Court when it definitively found his actions were unlawful, and an order preventing further filming by the Burkes on the school and to remove material already posted on social media.
Ms Mallon said the school has had to engage a new security company due to online abuse of previous security men. It has meant the cost of security has risen from some €700 to about €1,100 a day and could rise further.
Since the beginning of this month, Mr Burke had tried to enter the school but was successfully stopped on most occasions. On one day, he drove in a Toyota car for which the registration was not obtained, counsel said.
Ms Mallon said it appeared throughout the three years of this case that Mr Burke does not believe the rule of law applies to him. The school has now been driven to an extraordinary situation of having to employ a security guard with a body cam.
There is “nothing that will convince him to stop” and now a further jailing for contempt of court is sought, she said.
The judge said he would give a judgment on Mr Burke’s continuing contempt next week and deal later with the court conduct contempt by all four family members.
