Bible studies case likely to head to High Court
the Human Rights Commission, but the commission said it believes the High Court is a better place for the issue to be argued.
SEN spokesman David Hines said the organisation wanted to change laws that permitted Bible studies being taught in schools.
He said the programme of Bibles in Schools was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act.
‘‘It’s discriminating in favour of Christianity against other religions.’’
‘‘They teach all our values come from Christianity, which annoys people. They teach you have to believe in God to be a good person . . . they don’t mention Islam in any of their lessons,’’ he said.
Hines said parents had the right to pull their students out of classes but it segregated the class and could cause bullying.
‘‘They can get labelled as antiChristian and parents also.’’
Hines said SEN was not opposed to teaching religion in schools.
Currently it was done by volunteers and most of the time, only Christianity was taught.
He said it needed to be taught by professional teachers and all religious beliefs needed to be covered.
A Human Rights Commission spokesperson confirmed it supported SEN’s application to have its case heard at the High Court.
‘‘The proceedings were originally filed with the Human Rights Review Tribunal in October 2016 and little substantive progress has been made since then,’’ the spokesperson said.