A senior lecturer at a London college has been suspended after he was secretly recorded comparing gay teachers to the Ku Klux Klan in a horrific homophobic rant.
A 50 minute-long video of Mark Walcott, a consultant artistic director of performing arts at Newham FE College, was posted on YouTube by his colleagues, who claim their complaints were "swept under the carpet" by the school.
In his rant, he tells stunned staff: "If you agree that the Ku Klux Klan could run a school and influence people into racism.. you should agree that any ideology one could do that with. So people who are gay can do that too.
"Boys are becoming gay not because they have got a gay gene but because they have gay teachers. The homosexual stimuli is out there moulding and grooming our children.
Walcott, who has a degree in psychology, added he would never let Elton John run a school because of his "gayisms", and he had met members of the KKK and "totally agreed with them".
"I see nothing wrong with the Ku Klux Klan," he says. "They’re fighting for their country, they’re fighting for their right.
"If you went to Jamaica and you tried to breed out the Jamaicans…so that our people started to become afraid and our reggae music was starting to sound like rock and our Jamaican [people were] starting to look like Chinese people, we would kill people. I understand the fear.”
When criticised, he defends himself, saying: "You have no idea how many gay friends I have, you have no idea how I support gay people."
WARNING: Contains offensive material (story continues below)
The school issued a statement reading: "The College is aware that a recording has been posted on social media websites expressing views that do not reflect the values of Newham College. The College has instigated a full investigation, to be externally chaired.
"The individual named has been suspended, pending that investigation. Newham College has a proud reputation as a fair employer, not least as the only FE college in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index top 100, and does not support any discrimination against, or unfair treatment of, staff or learners in any context. As the provenance of the recording has been referred to the police, wecannot comment further at this stage."
Walcott, who is a father of five, has been suspended pending the investigation. He has not responded to any media requests for comment.
A 50 minute-long video of Mark Walcott, a consultant artistic director of performing arts at Newham FE College, was posted on YouTube by his colleagues, who claim their complaints were "swept under the carpet" by the school.
In his rant, he tells stunned staff: "If you agree that the Ku Klux Klan could run a school and influence people into racism.. you should agree that any ideology one could do that with. So people who are gay can do that too.
"Boys are becoming gay not because they have got a gay gene but because they have gay teachers. The homosexual stimuli is out there moulding and grooming our children.
Walcott, who has a degree in psychology, added he would never let Elton John run a school because of his "gayisms", and he had met members of the KKK and "totally agreed with them".
"I see nothing wrong with the Ku Klux Klan," he says. "They’re fighting for their country, they’re fighting for their right.
"If you went to Jamaica and you tried to breed out the Jamaicans…so that our people started to become afraid and our reggae music was starting to sound like rock and our Jamaican [people were] starting to look like Chinese people, we would kill people. I understand the fear.”
When criticised, he defends himself, saying: "You have no idea how many gay friends I have, you have no idea how I support gay people."
WARNING: Contains offensive material (story continues below)
The school issued a statement reading: "The College is aware that a recording has been posted on social media websites expressing views that do not reflect the values of Newham College. The College has instigated a full investigation, to be externally chaired.
"The individual named has been suspended, pending that investigation. Newham College has a proud reputation as a fair employer, not least as the only FE college in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index top 100, and does not support any discrimination against, or unfair treatment of, staff or learners in any context. As the provenance of the recording has been referred to the police, wecannot comment further at this stage."
Walcott, who is a father of five, has been suspended pending the investigation. He has not responded to any media requests for comment.