A teacher at a Catholic secondary school in Whangarei has been sacked after he supported students who objected to anti-gay marriage comments by the principal.
Pompallier Catholic College science teacher Nigel Studdart was given his notice this week, three weeks after he was suspended for supporting a silent student protest involving rainbow wrist bands.
They were opposing comments made by principal Richard Stanton in the school's newsletter last month, where he opposed legalising gay marriage and said that same-sex couples might be more inclined to think of children as a right rather than a gift.
Mr Studdart said he thought the comments were prejudicial toward gay parents and potentially harmful to gay students or the children of gay people.
The principal's inference that gay people were inferior parents was "untenable", he said.
Following a meeting with Mr Studdart on Tuesday, the college's board of trustees, in a short statement, said Mr Studdart would not return to the school, the Northern Advocate reports.
The board said Mr Studdart's teaching practice was not in question.
Mr Studdart told the paper he was not surprised by his sacking.
"I went into the meeting with plenty of documentation and a well-prepared argument but it was obviously a foregone conclusion," he said.
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