Teacher Enoch Burke has claimed he has had support from some students, parents and staff at the school where he used to work.
Mr Burke says his presence, outside the building at Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath, in defiance of a High Court injunction, is not disruptive as the school has alleged.
The school has claimed that Mr Burke's continued attendance at the premises is a source of considerable disruption and unease for staff, students, parents and the wider school community.
But Mr Burke claims some students have held up messages of support from classroom windows as he stands outside. He also claims that one student baked scones for him and that a parent described him as an inspiration and a hero.
The claims are made in a sworn document submitted by Mr Burke as part of the proceedings taken by the school against him.
He was suspended on full pay last August and was sent to prison in September after he continued to attend despite an injunction granted to the school.
He was released from prison just before Christmas and has continued to attend at the school since it reopened in January, despite his subsequent dismissal and the imposition by the High Court of a €700 daily fine for contempt of court. The total fine he faces now stands at almost €26,000.
Earlier this week, the court asked the school to list all the occasions on which Mr Burke had breached the court's order and gave Mr Burke until yesterday evening to reply.
In his response to the school, Mr Burke says he has continued to "report for work" since his release from prison in December 2022.
Mr Burke says that he stands outside the school building and that he's greeted almost every day by students either "waving, putting up their hand or making a positive comment". He says first year students consistently wave to him and that students have held up handwritten messages of support from inside an adjacent classroom window asking what they can do to support him and if he needs anything to eat.
Mr Burke says that when he was standing in the school corridor one day, a student gave him a gift bag of scones she had baked herself. He says on another occasion a student asked him for private tuition.
Mr Burke also claims he has had support from parents, one of whom told him he was a hero in their children's eyes as well as "an inspiration needed for young students during these unprecedented times".
Mr Burke also alleges he has received support from staff in the school and that he has not caused any disruption.
Mr Justice Brian O'Moore asked for the sworn documents from the school and from Mr Burke as part of his review of Mr Burke's fines for contempt of court and of the costs of the proceedings.
He gave the directions in relation to the documents at a brief hearing last Tuesday in Mr Burke's absence. Mr Burke and his family arrived around 11 or 12 minutes after the hearing was due to start but the judge had already risen from the bench when they arrived in court.
No new date has yet been listed for that review, but on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal is due to give its ruling in Mr Burke's challenge to a number of orders made by the High Court including the injunction not to trespass at the school.
At the appeal hearing, the court warned him that it may not deliver its decision at all if there was further "egregious conduct" by him and that whether or not there would be a decision on the merits of the case was "very much in Mr Burke's hands".
The proceedings between Mr Burke and the school arose after a number of incidents stemming from a student's request to be addressed by a new name and "they/them" pronouns and Mr Burke's objections to this.
