A pastoral assistant has won her challenge to her dismissal, which happened because she raised concerns about the transgenderism ideologies and compulsory sex education at her son’s Church of England school.
The case was brought by Christian teaching assistant Kristie Higgs, and was novel because it earlier involved the dismissal of two judges hearing her employment panel appeal for bias.
It is Christian Concern that now has reported the new decision from the Employment Appeal Tribune overturned the ruling previously issued by the Bristol Employment Tribunal.
The report said, “Kristie was sacked for sharing two Facebook posts that raised concerns about how transgenderism and compulsory sex education was to be taught at her son’s Church of England (CofE) primary school.”
But the new decision said, “The freedom to manifest belief (religious or otherwise) and to express views relating to that belief are essential rights in any democracy, whether or not the belief in question is popular or mainstream and even if its expression may offend.”
The new panel blasted the Bristol decision for failing to follow the law and assess whether it was required to dismiss Higgs to protect the “rights and freedoms of others,” while recognizing the “essential nature of [Mrs Higgs’s] rights to freedom of belief and freedom of expression.”
In the decision, the panel set a legal precedent which confirms that the Equality Act 2010 protects employees from discrimination “not only for their beliefs, but also for expression or manifestation of their beliefs. It confirms that any limitation of freedom to manifest religion at workplace must be prescribed by law and go no further than is necessary in a democratic society for the protection of rights, freedoms and reputation of others,” the report said.
The U.K. has a long history of cases in which Christians faced discrimination, punishment and even dismissal for “offenses” that were nothing more than, for example, “praying and wearing crosses.”
The Christian Legal Center had supported Higgs since 2019 when she was told by her bosses at Fairford school in Gloucestershire that her traditional Christian beliefs were akin to that of a “pro-Nazi right-wing extremists.”
She had posted online her concerns after finding out the Church of England school where her child studied was, under the radar, indoctrinating children with “confusing and harmful gender identity.”
She encouraged friends and family to sign a petition challenging the government’s plans to introduce Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) to children in primary schools, and noted a government consultation on plans to make RSE mandatory.
In a second, she shared an article on the “rise of transgender ideology in children’s books in American schools” and added her own comment.
School officials, tipped anonymously to her beliefs, dismissed her for “illegal discrimination” and “serious inappropriate use of social media.”
Those claims never were supported by evidence, the center reported, and Higgs responded with a legal action for discrimination.
The appeals ruling returned the case to the lower tribunal for a new decision “in the light of her ruling on issues of law.”
The double recusal happened earlier, as a transgender activist, Edward Lord, was removed, and Andrew Morris, another nominee to be a lay magistrate, was revealed to have openly advocated for mandatory relationship and sex education for young children.
Higgs said, in a statement released by her lawyers, “Since I lost the job I loved, there has been so many disturbing revelations about transgender ideology in schools and children being taught inappropriate sex education. I feel so justified and vindicated for sharing and expressing the concerns that I did.”
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Christian Legal Center chief Andrea Williams explained, “We are pleased that the force of the facts in this case meant the judge had to do the right thing. … Kristie was punished in 2019 as a result of the climate of fear and intolerance created in our education system by Stonewall and other LGBT activist groups, and appropriated. Only now is the government beginning to wake up and be ‘alarmed’ by the extreme teaching young children have been exposed to on their watch.”
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