A teacher who described Islam as “satanic” and told students that “cocaine was purer back in the day” has been banned from the profession.
A Teaching Regulation Agency hearing in December found that Patrick Lawler, 62, who taught in Northumberland and Bristol, was guilty of professional misconduct and also brought the teaching profession into disrepute.
The panel heard there was an interest in banning it “in relation to the safeguarding and welfare of students”.
Mr Lawler previously appeared in an undercover BBC Wales investigation into extreme far-right views among group members in Wales and England, where he said race war was “inevitable”.
Mr Lawler did not take part in the proceedings nor did he express remorse. He responded to an earlier BBC request for comment but did not directly address the points raised in the hearing.
His views featured in the BBC documentary Wales Unmasked: Extreme Far Right, in which an undercover reporter infiltrated the far-right Patriotic Alternative (PA) group and met with members in parts of south Wales, and in England.
Speaking in 2024 to the undercover reporter at an event held by the group, he said a race war was “absolutely inevitable”.
He told the journalist that “all” foreigners had no right to be in the UK and said if anyone refused to leave “the only way to get rid of them is to kill every single one of them. And we have a heart of steel to do that”.
These comments did not form part of the panel hearing.
When asked about his comments afterwards, Mr Lawler accused the BBC of having an anti-white bias and of “persecuting ordinary British people who care deeply about the safety and well-being of our indigenous people”.
He appears to be still involved with his regional branch of the group, recently being pictured on the PA Telegram channel attending a Christmas dinner.
Mr Lawler has now been banned from teaching indefinitely and can apply to be reinstated after 22 December 2029.
In the hearing it was found that he “authored or co-authored” a series of online newsletters which said that Islam was “demonic” and called sex between two men an “unnatural, unhealthy, disgusting perversion”.
The panel found that Mr Lawler had distributed “material that was intolerant of the faith and beliefs of others”.
In the classroom, the panel found, he had not taken a “child-centred approach”.
Proven allegations included Mr Lawler calling Martin Luther King a “fraud”.
On a separate occasion he told students he was “surprised you weren’t all hanging from the lamps” and in another lesson he said “back in the day you could get purer cocaine”.
The panel also found that a number of other allegations were not proven and heard Mr Lawler had experienced “difficult personal circumstances” outside the school.
She also heard that some colleagues spoke positively about him as a teacher, with one witness saying that an intervention group “would not have passed” their exams without him.