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 students.
A course, facilitated by staff at Dublin City University (DCU), teaches tutors and SPHE coordinators about the syllabus offered at schools, which has changed in recent years.
In a statement this evening, DCU said the claims made in the online video “completely misrepresented” the material of the class and “purposefully conflates” what is taught to teachers on the Graduate Diploma programme.
DCU said that the campaign of misinformation has repeatedly conflated what is taught to students with what information is given to teachers “so that they have a broader knowledge of the SPHE/RSE area”.
The video, which kick started the wave of misinformation, 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.
While on the course she alleges that she watched a video depicting a female cartoon masturbating and other images showing sex and sexual activities between heterosexual and homosexual couples.
She falsely claimed that she was expected to show similar imagery to her second-level junior-cycle students.
The Journal’s FactCheck has previously debunked these claims using an internal memo circulated among the Department of Education. The Department said that students will “categorically” not be shown pornography in class.
This evening, DCU said all teachers who take the course are advised that the subjects on the curriculum – which includes topics such as mental, physical and sexual health, sexulaity, wellbeing, respect and relationships – should be taught in a “sensitive and age-appropriate manner”.
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, and not to the students who are later taught by those educators.
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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