DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY has said that it is “exploring all legal recourse” after academic staff who teach a course for SPHE co-ordinators have been threatened, sworn at and libeled in content that spreads false information about the syllabus.
SPHE is a secondary school subject that has regularly been targeted by religious and anti-trans groups in Ireland in recent years.
Recently, a video titled “SPHE Teacher’s Whistleblower Interview – What Happens in the Classroom Stays in the Classroom”, was posted online and included a number of false claims about what the course teaches tutors about the programme.
In a statement this evening, Dublin City University (DCU) – whose staff facilitate the course – has said the claims made in the online video “completely misrepresented” the material of the class.
DCU said a follow-on campaign of misinformation “purposefully conflates what is taught to teachers on the Graduate Diploma programme so that they have a broader knowledge of the SPHE/RSE area”.
It features an interview with a former SPHE teacher, Mary Creedon, who claims to be a “whistleblower” and who says she resigned from her job because she was expected to teach extreme material to children.
The claims centre on Creedon’s attendance at a course for SPHE co-ordinators – who oversee the subject’s implementation at their school – at DCU.
While on the course, she makes a number of false and inaccurate claims, including allegations that she watched a video depicting a female cartoon masturbating and other images showing sex and sexual activities between heterosexual and homosexual couples.
The Journal’s FactCheck has previously debunked these claims using an internal memo circulated among the Department of Education.
DCU said that the misinformation campaign has led to “targeted attacks” on staff who teach the course, including “unacceptable threats of violence, misogynistic and homophobic slurs, and libellous remarks being made on social media, in comment sections on article about the course and over email”.
“The university is exploring all legal recourse in relation to these matters,” it said.
DCU stressed that the materials used on the Graduate Diploma course are only provided to the adult teachers who take park in the class as part of their training to help them teach the new SPHE curriculum.
The course deals with topics such as mental, physical and sexual health, sexuality, wellbeing, respect and relationships. DCU said all topics are sensitive but teachers are trained to teach the material in an age-appropriate manner.
The university added that “no graphic or explicit material is intended for use by teachers in a secondary school classroom setting. Any claims that say otherwise are completely false”.
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