‘The kids clapped me, the whole school’: Yorkshire head on telling pupils he’s gay

'The kids cheered me on, the whole school': Yorkshire told pupils he was gay

Colin Scott of Risedale Secondary at Catterick Garrison announces news at an assembly to mark Pride Month

His students probably still consider him an "asshole," but the spontaneous applause Principal Colin Scott received after coming out at the school assembly brought tears to his eyes.

The assembly at Risedale School, a state secondary school in Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, had been held to mark Pride Month, with speakers including Lieutenant Colonel Jim Turner, the Commandant of the Catterick Garrison military base, who is gay, and Hanna Johnson, North Yorkshire police LGBTQ+ representative.

But there was also the school's 54-year-old headmaster, who the pupils soon realized, as he introduced them to her husband, Drew Dalton, a sociology professor at the University of Sunderland.

Scott grew up in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear, and knew he was gay as a teenager but didn't embrace it. As a kid in the 1980s, Scott says, he was "brainwashed to think a certain way." He thought he was going through a phase and tried to force himself to be straight, he said.

He joined the Royal Navy before the ban on homosexuality in the forces was lifted in January 2000. “I took out who I was and fought. I don't blame the Navy, by the way, the Navy was great for me. But I realized I had to get out before I was discovered.

Scott became a teacher around the time Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government introduced Section 28 legislation, which banned the 'promotion' of homosexuality by local authorities and meant that support was denied to pupils who needed it. The legislation was repealed in Scotland in 2000, and in England and Wales in 2003.

Scott said 15 to 20 years ago coming out would have hurt his career, but these days he's happy to be openly gay and has been in a civil partnership with Dalton since 2008. The School staff and governors have known about his sexuality for years, but all 500 students didn't find out until Monday.

(From left) PC Hanna Johnson, Drew Dalton, Colin Scott and Lt Col Jim Turner. Photograph: supplied

It made me feel guilty. Why can't I be like my students? Why can't I be honest with myself? said Scott. “There may be kids struggling with their sexuality and the position I have means I can be a role model. A number of different things all fell into place.

Kids today are much more "able and willing to accept people than maybe we were when we were kids," he said. "I was tired of hiding it. I can now take my husband to social events…I don't need to hide it.

 

Last year Nicholas Hewlett, the headmaster of a south London private school, made headlines when he came out to pupils in a virtual school assembly.

Scott said he was not aware of any other state high school principals speaking to their students.

He said he was "awed and in awe" of the young people he was responsible for. "I'm like, 'Why can't I be as open and accepting as most young people feel confident enough to do and are?'"

Bias and bullying still exist in schools and if coming out publicly helps a child, that's enough, he said.

The congregation itself was a bit hazy because of their nervousness, he said. "The assembly wasn't about me, it was about individuality...but the kids cheered for me, the whole school, it made me cry a little bit."

Then the teenagers behaved no differently with him. "They still think I'm a jerk," he joked. "But a number came out and said they were proud of me, which is absolutely not what I expected."

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