Gossip blog teacher who offended everyone from the school cleaner to the headteacher he dubbed 'Grima Wormtongue' says he is victim of 'cancel culture by the liberal elite'

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A teacher who faces being struck off for writing an anonymous gossip blog scorning pupils and staff has declared himself a victim of 'cancel culture by the liberal elite'.

Alexander Price, 43, passed scathing judgement on everyone from the headmaster to the cleaner while working at Denbigh High School in North Wales. 

The design and technology teacher even wrote that school girls at prom 'look like Eastern European prostitutes and trans-human Kardashian clones'. 

He penned 24 blog posts between January 2016 and March 2018 until a colleague stumbled across the online diary and alerted headmaster Dr Paul Evans.

Dr Evans realised that one of the articles, titled Liars, Backstabbers and Empire Builders, referred directly to a meeting he had had with Mr Price, who was swiftly suspended pending investigation.

Mr Price admits writing the blogs but denies they amount to unacceptable professional conduct. 

Today at a hearing in Cardiff, he launched a passionate defence of his 'colourful and entertaining' blog and said he was exposing mismanagement at the school.

He also doubled down on his reference to the headmaster as Grima Wormtongue, the sycophant character in Lord Of The Rings, saying: 'It was accurate.' 

Alexander Price, 43, offended pupils, parents and colleagues at Denbigh High School in Denbigh, North Wales, with his mystery blog called 'The Provoked Pedagogue'

Headmaster Dr Paul Evans (pictured) realised that one of the articles, titled Liars, Backstabbers and Empire Builders, referred directly to a meeting he had had with Mr Price, who was swiftly suspended pending investigation

Speaking at the hearing, Mr Price said: 'I would assert the absolute right to freedom of expression.

'In these times of cancel culture and the ownership of language this is one further example of the liberal elite attempting to sanitise the world with their own brand of passive-aggressive censorship and bullying.'

He said: 'Teaching in Wales is in crisis, teaching at Denbigh High School was non-existent in any meaningful sense of the word, fact borne out of its inability to meet even the basic standards of competence.

'The school is run in a shameful way which negatively impacts on the lives of children and their families in one of the poorest wards of the UK.

'Paul Evans treated Denbigh High School like his own personal fiefdom, running roughshod over procedure and bullying those who did not comply with his methods.

'He blamed me directly for failings in his own management and to seek to intimidate me to complying with his unreasonable demands.'

Speaking at the hearing, Dr Evans reeled off the rude descriptions given to members of his staff - including references to him as the sycophant character from Lord of the Rings (pictured), 'slithering around the school in a foul mission'

Speaking earlier at the hearing, Dr Evans reeled off the rude descriptions Mr Price made about members of his staff.

Dr Evans said: 'He refers to the cleaners as uneducated, having less than functional literacy and knowing enough maths to ensure he doesn't get too badly ripped off. He watches the same TV every week and does not aspire to anything more.'

'He refers to me as Grima Wormtongue and I believe this is incredibly derogatory. It's clear anyone with any context of the school would know who he is referring to.

'In one post he refers to 'slithering Grima Wormtongue' getting the job, in respect of me being appointed head teacher.

'He is accusing me of working my way into the good books of the inspector and suggesting I was pulling the wool over the eyes of the inspector.'

Dr Evans said he was made aware of The Provoked Pedagogue blogs and Twitter account in February 2018 by another teacher at the school.

He said: 'There was a blog with articles and a Twitter account containing tweets about the school.

'Many of the features coincided with specific training days held in school and that they were describing events within our school.

'There are a number of derogatory comments made about pupils, parents, and members of staff at the school throughout the blog posts.' 

Mr Price (pictured above) left the school in 2019 and now could be struck off the teaching register after being accused of unacceptable professional conduct over the blog posts

Denbigh High School in North Wales. The hearing was told the 540-pupil school had been in special measures at the time of Design and Technology teacher Mr Price writing the blog

The hearing was told the 540-pupil school had been in special measures at the time of Design and Technology teacher Mr Price writing the blog. 

Dr Evans added: 'To know that one of our colleagues was letting the world know it was a challenging situation and a lack of leadership and direction showed a lack of loyalty towards the school and what we were trying to do at the time.

'I think many staff would find it hurtful one of their colleagues was being disrespectful and pouring scorn on their efforts.

'I think it's very disrespectful to his colleagues, I think if they were to read that they would find it hurtful.'

Mr Price said he had 'no intention' to return to teaching whatever the panel's ruling, but asked them not to 'shoot the messenger' for exposing alleged problems at the school.

He said: 'Behaviour was horrendous and unsafe. Drug use was rife. The blog had a tiny readership and was fully anonymous.

'Hundreds of pages of papers and hours and hours of time have been invested to investigate a blog which yielded zero complaints and simply told the anonymous truth.

'The articles are colourful and meant to be entertaining. While it was active I would regularly receive responses asking if I worked at their school - indicating the issues experienced were mirrored and lending strength to the efforts to anonymise the blog.'

Mr Price said he hoped his misconduct hearing would 'shine a light' on the 'disgraceful behaviour' of headteacher Dr Evans.

'I hope this shines a further light on the how poorly the children of Denbigh High School are being served.'

'I hope these proceedings finally manage to drive the improvements that all the people served by the school deserve.'

Mr Price asked if the panel would 'seek to shoot the messenger.'

Presenting officer Ashanti-Jade Walton asked Mr Price if he was sorry about the blog posts relating to the school prom.

He replied: 'I'm sorry that so many pupils are forced to do this. That's what I'm sorry about.'

In one article titled 'The Problem With Prom', Mr Price called the event 'a shallow, vacuous affair, about nothing more than who has spent the most on looking nice'. 

The post described children as 'shameless chicken fillets shoved into criminally expensive and ill-fitting gowns'. 

Dr Evans said Mr Price's blog post about parents and pupils at the school prom was 'extremely hurtful'.

He said: 'The pupils are not from rich backgrounds therefore could not be in a position to afford expensive prom gowns or overpriced cosmetics.

'I believe they are wholly derogatory comments about the pupils at the school, disrespectful and seeking to undermine pupils at the school.

'The comments are wholly offensive to parents whose pupils attend the school.'

'For many parents the end of year prom is the pinnacle of completing school... They celebrate their child reaching that particular moment in time.

'The event takes place at the town hall and get large crowds to watch the youngsters in their finery.

'The majority of parents see it as a very worthy event.'

He said the way Mr Price described pupils at the prom was 'horrifying': 'It gives the impression there's a low level of aspiration and some of the language was extremely negative and that's not representative of the young people in that year group.'

Colin Adkins, Mr Price's union representative said the comments were fair and his own 'reasonable professional opinion' and that neither the school, nor any parent or pupil was identified.

Mr Adkins, of NASUWT, said: 'The contents of the blog are true and the attack on Mr Price is an attempt to cover-up the failings of the school.

'Just because these facts are inconvenient to the school should not allow the school to succeed in this cover up.

'The blogs are totally anonymised. There is not one article which mentions a pupil by name, a parent by name, or a member of staff by name.'

Mr Price left the school in 2019 and now could be struck off the teaching register after being accused of unacceptable professional conduct over the blog posts. 

The hearing in Cardiff continues.