Another Christian faces the sack thanks to political correctness gone mad
Dear Jennie Cain,
I was hoping that my letter to Julia Robinson, the headteacher who was sacked because Muslim parents took a disliking to her, was going to be the last of its kind for a while. Last week, nurse Caroline Petrie was told she could go back to work having been suspended for two months for offering to pray for a patient and now you have become another victim of religious divisiveness in our public services. You are facing the sack from your receptionist role at Landscore Primary School because you sought support from your friends after your 5-year-old daughter was reprimanded for talking about Jesus in class, which is a wholly disproportionate and almost discriminatory response.
Your daughter Jasmine had been overheard by a teacher discussing heaven and God with a friend and had been pulled to one side and told off. On picking up your daughter from school, she “burst into tears, her face was all red and she was clearly upset. She said ‘my teacher told me I couldn’t talk about Jesus’ – I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.” You waited until you finished work to discuss the issue with the teacher, only to be called into the headteacher Mr Read’s office the next day. “He started talking about my daughter about how he wasn’t happy about her making statements about her faith. At that point I froze, I felt very small and I felt trapped as I was a junior member of staff.” That weekend, you emailed a prayer request from your personal computer at home to 10 friends from church. “I asked them to please pray for us, please pray for Jasmine, please pray for the school and pray for the church.” A few days later you were called back into Mr Read’s office, only to find that ”he had in his hand a copy of my private, personal email and it was highlighted all the way through. He said that he was going to investigate me for professional misconduct because I had been making allegations about the school and staff to members of the public.” Mr Read refused to say where he had got the email but said two independent governors would be taking statements and calling witnesses. “He said the investigation could be followed by disciplinary action up to and including dismissal because of this private email.”
Absolutely unbelievable. How on earth can society allow a child to be disciplined for talking about God? What exactly did your daughter do wrong? Like you said, ”if my children can go to school and sing a song which mentions Jesus, how are they meant to know that they are then not allowed to talk about God?” Seeing as all state schools have a (ridiculous) legal bond to Christianity, how can a young child get told off and reduced to tears because they followed the law of the land? Jasmine wasn’t forcing her beliefs on others, she was merely expressing what she believed in. On the issue of your private email, I’m pretty certain that most school employee contracts forbid slagging off your employer but without seeing your email I cannot judge either way, although I can understand how you feel violated by the incident. Mike Judge from the Christian Institute said children should be allowed to discuss religion with each other without interference from teachers – common sense to you and me but obviously an alien concept to our socialist authoritarian masters in government. He went on to say that “this is the latest in a series where Christians are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. …Christians are in the firing line, not other minority groups.” To put his remarks in context, do you think a teacher would have reprimanded a Muslim child for talking about Allah? Of course they wouldn’t, because Muslims are protected by the government in a way that Christianity can only dream of.
Teachers and other public sector workers now face being disciplined if they discuss their religious beliefs. The teaching profession’s regulator, the General Teaching Council, has drawn up a new code of practice that states classroom staff must “promote equality and value diversity” and it is this same code of practice that was used to suspend Mrs Petrie for her nursing job. It is a national disgrace that employees can no longer even mention their faith without being fired. Being an atheist I don’t think religious groups should ever be allowed to force their views on anyone, hence my disgust at Muslim parents getting Julia Robinson fired for not allowing them to tear the school community apart. However, the freedom to express religious beliefs is a fundamental freedom that we should all respect, regardless of our own religious views, Yet again, Christianity gets a raw deal while Muslims get government protection.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
Witanagemot Blogs
What happens at Christmas? Are the children allowed to discuss Santa, I assume that as he is a saint in Christianity this would also be met with the same harsh punishment. Like you, LFAT, I am also an atheist but a rather big fan of free speech. If I wanted to speak of sky fairies (as Shaun mentioned a few days ago) then at should be at liberty to do so. This is one of the reasons that i’ve never understood the illegal nature of saying you don’t believe the holocaust happened.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion no matter how wacky, wierd or untrue. It’s a great way to consolidate your opinions by hearing others.
To reprimnd or discipline a child for discussing an idea, even one I find personally ridiculous (like Abrahmic religion, for instance) is to my mind utterly incompatible with the role of a school in stimulating intellectual development. There is a difference between ideas being discussed and religious dogma being *taught*.
More seriously is the matter of the email. How did the head obtain it and, considering that prima facie the ‘allegation’ in the mail is true (which it must be when you look at the School’s action in total), would a contractual term prohibiting “making allegations about the school and staff to members of the public” be upheld?
Finally was it not the child that erred (setting aside the mail) and is it ethical for an employer tasked with looking after children to fire a child’s parent for something the child has said?
Shaun, it sounds like they will discipline her for making allegations against the school rather than for her child’s actions. I think it is appalling that the headteacher used a private email against her – who doesn’t talk about their employer with personal friends? Mind you, that also raises the question of which of her 10 close friends dobbed her in.
Candid, no doubt some Muslim parent will complain about Santa soon enough and he will be banned from all schools.
All sounds a bit rum to me – should be good fun when it gets to court although the
professional victim squadlikes of Christian Voice will no doubt obfuscate the issues about employment and breach of confidence in a cloud of ‘waaah you just hate us because we love Jesus’…“…utterly incompatible with the role of a school in stimulating intellectual development.”
What on earth makes you think that’s what schools under NuLab are for…?
I dunno … I read somewhere that there was a box to tick with that label on it!
I think it’s fair to say that, even today, most people agreed that our schools stamp out any signs of creativity, free thinking, intellectual development or individualism.
This sad tale merely reinforces my view that state-run state-owned schools do not understand the concept of ‘education’.
Oh dear, how sad it’s all become.
I’m not religious but did send my two daughters to a Christian School until the age of 8. I did this for two reasons, one it was the better school and secondly, I think it’s comforting and quite beautiful for small children to believe that they are being looked after by God. It helps in so many ways, it’s so much easier to tell them about death if they ask for example. The answer is always “they’re with God and the angels in heaven”..
To reprimand a 5 year old for discussing something she feels secure in is unforgivable. Can you imagine what would have happened if a Muslim child had been reduced to tears for discussing Allah?
I think we all know the answer to that one!
To reprimand a 5 year old for discussing something she feels secure in is unforgivable. Can you imagine what would have happened if a Muslim child had been reduced to tears for discussing Allah?
I think we all know the answer to that one!
For one thing they’d have the likes of Lord Ahmed threatening to bring a 10,000 strong unruly mob to the gates of
The House of Lordsthe school. I love how mob rule can substitute for the settled will of a democracy.Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a tolerant and open society instead of the government pursuing their political goals by destroying British values? I find it amazing that everyone kicks up a stink about 42-detention because it attacks one of our most basic civil liberties, yet when freedom of speech is threatened the political establishment do sod all (or make it worse). Lord Ahmed is a disgrace.
It’s because it isn’t generally in the interests of ANY government to have fully free speech as any method of stifling dissent is suddenly a boon. Remember Zircon? On top of that our current shower of a government are playing inept identity politics with the muslim community and, for that matter, all faith groups so pandering to their prejudices looks like a cheap way of stitching up some votes.
All this will do is turn more people to the bnp.I’m an athiest too but this is just so pathetic,how come the local parents don’t march on the school and confront these stasi face to face.
It seems”muslims good,everyone else baaaaad”It will come to muslims vs the world in the end.
muslims vs the world
Actually, dmc, that’s what Al Qaeda and fellow nutjobs have been saying for a while!
It’s good to see ConHome getting angry about this as well. The comments show how angry the grassroots are about Chris Grayling’s fairly weak response to this situation.
DMC, I fear you might be right. The European elections in June could give everyone a nasty surprise with the current sentiments towards foreign workers and Islamic appeasement.
I can say for a fact that UKIP are gearing up for the Euro elections (I’ve been doing the odd sub-contract on their website) and seeing Lord Pearson dismember Lord Ahmed on Sky News this afternoon, I have to say, this is going to play well for them.
I still won’t be voting for them though!
Lesson here is that, if you work for the state in any form, remember that nothing you do , say or type is private.
Predicted Government Handout to employees 2010:
“Freedom of expression in Britain is only allowed if that falls within the required guidelines laid down by the state. The state is the sole arbiter of good and bad. Citizens should not criticise other members of the state employ, this will lead to public castigation and empoverishment (as no further employment will be available to you).
Are your thoughts in line with government guidelines? Wrong thinking can lead to wrongdoing. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU THINK!”
I thought when George Orwell wrote 1984 it was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
Predicted Government Handout to employees 2010:
“Freedom of expression in Britain is only allowed if that falls within the required guidelines laid down by the state. The state is the sole arbiter of good and bad. Citizens should not criticise other members of the state employ, this will lead to public castigation and empoverishment (as no further employment will be available to you).
Are your thoughts in line with government guidelines? Wrong thinking can lead to wrongdoing. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU THINK!
ZaNuLab translations:
Freedom of expression in Britain is an inalienable right, tempered solely by the fact that freedoms must have limits. These limits are set down by your democratically elected government for your own protection.
Your government is the duely elected, legitimate arbiter of these limits, of good and bad. Citizens should not criticise hardworking employess of the state who are striving to provide for their equally hardworking families. Breaking this rule will lead to placement on the Public Naughty Step, as we now refer to penitentiaries, followed by justifiable inclusion on a collection of databases until you are, as the saying goes, stamped, numbered, catalogued, briefed, debriefed… until we place you upon the very generous welfare provisions we provide to all those we
ensure are unable to get a jobattempt to reintegrate as productive members of society.it was my daughter that was upset as her daughter told my daughter she would go to hell is she was not a christian.
the story you have been given is an emmotive subjective story. You need to professionally n hear both sides of th estory before you judge. Judge ye not lest ye be judged.
Landscore is a wonderful school. I built a sacred labyrinth there which i often walk for quiet contemplation.If you know about you christianity you will know about the symbolic relevence of the sacred labyrynth…The teacher enjoys teaching the children about Jesus of course she does…my daughter was told she was going to hell and was upset…but you know what…..you have made your judgement…if you had any equanimity you would be asking yourself what is teh other side of the story…..best wishes,X
“Landscore is a wonderful school. I built a sacred labyrinth there which i often walk for quiet contemplation…”
!!!
Oh, I hope you are for real, and not some wind-up merchant. Because if the papers get hold of that little detail…
Sam, assuming that you are indeed telling the truth, your point about your daughter being upset is fair enough. However, when dealing with children’s conversations I don’t think either child will give a perfect recollection of what was said and (most importantly) what it was said.
I doubt, albeit just based on a hunch, that Jasmine deliberately set out to upset your daughter. Surely you understand that children lack the eloquence and subtlety of adults when talking about religious beliefs? If Jasmine upset your daughter, that is clearly not good form, but do you really think it justifies the girl’s mother being dragged in front of the headteacher and chastised for talking about her faith? Neither you nor the headteacher have provided sufficient justification for what has happened to Jennie Cain or her daughter.
And more to the point, do you believe that teachers should intervene every time your daughter hears something from another child that upsets her?
Because if so, they’d better get ready to intervene each time she’s told that if you step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back, that the substance inside golf balls is deadly poison, that if you swallow an apple seed, a tree will grow in your belly, etc, etc…
I think the point that most people are missing is that this child was not simply ‘discussing’ jesus but was telling another child that if they didn’t love jesus then they would go to hell. Personally i think that it is sad for both children to be made to think this.
and as for discussing santa i’m sure a lot of parents would have something to say if one 5yr old child went into school and told all of the other children that santa wasn’t real but it’s just freedom of speech right?
I think the point that most people are missing is that this child was not simply ‘discussing’ jesus but was telling another child that if they didn’t love jesus then they would go to hell.
As I understand it, that’s the core Christian dogma – accept Jesus as your Lord and Messiah or die/burn in hell (depending on what flavour of Jesus-themed sky fairy you believein).