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Teacher who showed his class videos of President Trump referred to the Government’s counter-terrorism programme

Max Thompson

28 December 2025

A teacher at Henley College in Oxfordshire was reported to the local safeguarding authority and referred to the Government’s counter-terrorism programme, Prevent, for showing footage of President Donald Trump to his A-level politics class.

The teacher told The Telegraph in an interview that he was “likened to a terrorist” and accused of posing a risk to children after showing videos of Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States of America. He went on to describe the situation as “dystopian, like something from a George Orwell novel.”

Henley College reported the teacher — a man in his 50s — to the local child safeguarding authority, which recommended that he be referred as a “priority” to Prevent. The teacher, who wishes to remain anonymous, was accused of causing his 17- and 18-year-old students “emotional harm” and told that the videos of President Trump could amount to a “hate crime”.

This is the latest example of safeguarding protocols being weaponised by local authorities to silence individuals for political reasons. These protocols exist to protect children from serious harm, including threats posed by rapists and murderers. This case, however, illustrates how such mechanisms can be distorted for ideological enforcement.

Two students complained to the college, triggering an investigation in January 2025. The teacher was accused of being “biased” and told that his teaching had been “off topic”. In a letter dated 28 January, the college alleged that he was “to have shown your students videos of Donald Trump, his campaign, propaganda and other videos which are unrelated to what is being taught”. The college further stated that one of the videos had “made one of the students feel quite uncomfortable”.

In April, the teacher received a formal letter from the college informing him that he was accused of misconduct. He was told that his alleged offence was having caused “emotional harm… to your students as a result of you sharing inappropriate content (especially videos) with them and having a lack of balance when presenting political views with an emphasis on Right-wing, potentially extremist views”.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the teacher said: “It was just terrifying; just mind-boggling. We were discussing the US election, Trump had just won and I showed a couple of videos from the Trump campaign. Next thing, I was accused of bias. One of the students said they were emotionally disturbed and claimed to have had nightmares.”

The teacher rejects the notion that he is a far-right extremist, stating that he is a practising Catholic and a supporter of the Republican Party — one of the two mainstream political parties in the United States, which currently controls the presidency and both houses of Congress. It is also important to note that Donald Trump is the democratically elected president of the UK’s closest ally, having received 77,303,568 votes in the popular vote during the 2024 presidential election.

The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) who dealt with the complaint stated in their report that the teacher’s views “could be perceived as radical”. The report added: “There is concern that this behaviour could cause harm to a child, there could be a criminal offence from the views which could constitute a hate crime and it’s possible that his promoting of views could be radicalisation.” It concluded that the teacher should be referred to Prevent — the Government programme tasked with combating radicalisation in schools and other institutions – as a priority.

The teacher said: “I felt completely insulted at the suggestion I was a danger to children. It impacted my mental health. I had to see a counsellor. It upset my physical health. It was absolutely appalling. It really overwhelmed me.”

The videos shown to the politics class included footage from President Trump’s inauguration and a music video titled Daddy’s Home. The video was made by Roseanne Barr — a Canadian artist and Trump supporter — and has received 7.8 million views on YouTube. It was also recommended to the teacher by one of his pupils.

While the college stated that the footage was “inappropriate content” and that his lessons lacked balance, it should be noted that the teacher also showed videos of President Trump’s former Democratic Party rival, Kamala Harris, and received no complaints. At the time, he was teaching his class about politics and the use of propaganda.

After receiving the letter in April from the college, the teacher wrote to US Vice President JD Vance — a Republican and prominent free speech advocate — describing the case as “a shocking case of the imposition of communist-style silencing of opinion and narratives counter to that imposed by the intolerant far Left”.

The teacher subsequently contacted the Free Speech Union for assistance. In its defence of the teacher, the organisation argued that he was a victim of “bullying and harassment” and noted that he had also been accused of showing a “genocide video”. That video was, in fact, supplied by the Holocaust Education Trust as part of an official set of teaching materials.

The Free Speech Union helped to secure the teacher a £2,000 payoff from the college after he initiated a grievance procedure due to being effectively forced to resign his position.

Lord Young of Acton, General Secretary and founder of the Free Speech Union, said: “The United States is our closest ally and Donald Trump is its democratically elected leader. Showing one of his election adverts to a class of politics students, particularly alongside one of Kamala Harris’s, does not make you a risk to children.

“There is a clear-cut case of safeguarding protocols being weaponised to silence someone for political reasons.”

Henley College declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph. Both the college and the LADO now face serious questions over their handling of the case.

Read more in The Telegraph.