Britain’s first openly-gay state school head teacher comes out to pupils by introducing his husband in special assembly
- Colin Scott, 54, urged 512 pupils to ‘be who you want to be’ in special assembly
- He introduced husband Drew Dalton to pupils on Monday to mark Pride month
- Students and parents at Risedale School, North Yorkshire saluted his ‘bravery’
Britain’s first openly-gay state school headteacher has come out to his students by introducing his husband in a special assembly on Monday.
Colin Scott, 54, urged his pupils to ‘be whoever you want to be’ as he introduced his husband Drew Dalton, a sociology lecturer at the University of Sunderland, during the assembly to mark Pride month.
Mr Scott’s 512 pupils and their parents at Risedale School in North Yorkshire did not know of his sexuality beforehand – but school governors and staff knew of his decision in advance.
Mr Scott said he had ‘awe and admiration for the young people I am responsible for’ because they are ‘accepting of their peers’ individual identities’.
He and his husband were joined on the school stage by Hanna Johnson, North Yorkshire Police’s LGBTQ+ representative, and Lt Colonel Jim Turner, the openly gay commander at Catterick Garrison.
Surprised students commended their headmaster’s bravery and burst into a round of applause.
Last year, a private school head Nick Hewlett made history when he revealed his sexuality to his pupils in a virtual school assembly.
The head at the £18,000-a-year St Dunstan’s College in Catford, south London, delivered the pre-recorded video message to over 700, detailing how he is ‘happily married and gay’.
Meanwhile, Mr Scott said the reason he decided to come out to his students was because he wanted to be ‘honest to myself’ and ’embrace who I truly am’ following ‘fear and trumoil’ he has faced throughout his life – which forced him to quit the Royal Navy.
Britain’s first openly-gay state school headteacher, Colin Scott, 54, (pictured) has come out to his students by introducing his husband in a special assembly on Monday
Mr Scott (introduced his husband Drew Dalton, a sociology lecturer at the University of Sunderland, during the assembly to mark Pride month. (From left, Hanna Johnson, NYP LGBQ+ liaison, Draw Dalton, Colin Scott and Lt Col Jim Turner, garrison commander)
Mr Scott said the reason he decided to come out to his students was because he wanted to be ‘honest to myself’ and ’embrace who I truly am’ following ‘turmoil’ he has faced throughout his life – which forced him to quit the Royal Navy
He said: ‘I am truly inspired by the pupils who are brave enough to be who they are and who they want to be.
‘The time for me to hide behind the 80s child is over and to now embrace who I truly am, as I have always, perhaps hypocritically encouraged my pupils to do.
‘It’s time for me to practise what I preach and to be honest to myself and to others.’
Mr Scott said he grew up in a working class household in Hebburn, South Tyneside, and joined the Navy in 1984.
He said: ‘I joined the Navy in full, but private, knowledge about my own sexuality. I thought it was a ‘phase’ that every young person went through.
‘I told myself I was straight after all because that’s what I should be. That’s what I had been brought up to think and certainly the stigma attached to being gay at the time was not a positive one in society or the local communities.
‘After four years of being in the Navy, I really struggled to ‘block’ the gay side out of me for fear of being caught by the authorities whilst still trying to pretend and act as a straight man.
‘Whilst it was legal to be gay in civilian life it certainly wasn’t in military life and I risked being criminalised and sent to prison had I been found out.
Posting the news on Twitter, Mr Collins’ husband, Drew (pictured), wrote: ‘So today, my husband became the first ever U.K. state school secondary Headteacher to come out to his pupils. They applauded him + he has since received amazing emails from parents. I’m so proud of him’
‘It reached the point where it was seriously affecting my own mental health and I made a choice to leave the job I had dearly loved doing because of that fear and turmoil.
‘I still miss the Royal Navy to this day. But I regret nothing and only have the Navy to thank for how they truly made me who I was by building my confidence, growing me as a person and giving me my first experiences of teaching other people.
‘I trained to be a teacher at a time when the political mantra from government was that ‘children believe they have an inalienable right to be gay, no, no, no!’
‘This was the cry from the then prime minister in 1988. And so came a new law; Section 28. This prevented schools from supporting young people who were LGBTQ+ or even to say that it was ‘normal’.
‘The pressure of being a young gay teacher in the 1990’s prevented me being honest with myself and I hid, and I struggled and I cried.
‘Especially when one young person did find the confidence to confide in me about their own sexuality and I couldn’t help them, talk to them about it or point them in the direction of support.
‘Thankfully in 2003 Section 28 was gone and the equality act of 2010 now gives protections to all people regardless of their individuality, their disabilities, their faiths, their genders or their orientations.
Mr Scott (pictured) said he grew up in a working class household in Hebburn, South Tyneside, and joined the Navy in 1984
‘I have always put a brick wall up in front of me to prevent people from seeing the real me and instead showing them this ‘construct’ or clone of what society expected a teacher to be at the time.
‘This ‘wall’ stayed up for many years. Each time I went for a promotion being gay could be a career-killer. I still believed being openly gay would prevent a teacher reaching senior levels within a school, and never a headteacher. Especially in a secondary school.
‘But now I sit in awe and admiration for the young people I am responsible for as a headteacher. I watch their acceptance of their peers’ individual identities. Be that their culture, religion, gender, race or sexual orientation. I sit back and think to myself ‘why couldn’t I be as open and accepted as most young people now feel confident enough to do and are?’
‘Yes prejudice still exists out there and bullying does still happen in all schools. But here is me. A 54-year-old grown man scared of being who I am and hiding behind this fictional brick wall of my own construct. Yet the young people take on the world and are not now afraid of who they are.
‘Prejudice will always exist if those with influence do not challenge it in all its forms. Do I not have the ability to stand up and tell them how life for them is much better than it was for me but to also stand up as a role model to be ‘whoever you want to be’?
Parents posted messages of support following the assembly and saluted Mr Collins’ ‘bravery’.
Headmaster Nicholas Hewlett (pictured) told students and staff at St Dunstan’s College, Catford that he was gay and happily married
One said: ‘There’s absolutely no place for shame about our sexuality in todays society. My son was in the assembly today and in his words ‘It took some guts do to that in front of a few hundred teenagers.’ We all respect that, big up to Mr Scott!’
Another posted: ‘ I as a parent have always respected Mr Scott as Head teacher and now I also admire his honesty and bravery! Both of my children came home very proud of Mr Scott today and even though I have always taught and encouraged them to be who they want to be I think this afternoons assembly will stay with them forever.’
A mum of an LBGTQ pupil described his announcement as ‘absolutely awesome.’
She said: ‘Absolutely awesome. Well done Mr Scott for such a fantastic and inspirational assembly. You’ve helped lots of kids be brave today and be who they are without worry. As a Mum of a girl who is LGBTQ and at your school this has been incredible. Amazing head teacher, amazing school and even better because of today’s assembly.’
The school’s chairman of governors, John Glahome, added his support. He said he was ‘so pleased that the school community is so accepting of Mr Scott.’
Mr Glahome added: ‘We were sure as Governors, when we selected Mr Scott, he would be a force for good for the school and advance the school’s ethos.’
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