Child suing Birbalsingh had been suspended for ‘making stab threat’

A MUSLIM pupil taking Katharine Birbalsingh to court over a prayer ban was suspended last year for allegedly threatening to stab another child.

The pupil at Michaela Community School in Brent, north-west London, has launched a High Court challenge to the school’s prayer ban, claiming it is discriminatory. Michaela is one of the UK’S top-performing state schools and is rated “outstanding” by Ofsted.

Court papers state that the pupil, who cannot be named, was suspended for five days last year for threatening to stab another pupil. According to the school’s lawyers, the pupil accepted that she had said to another pupil: “If you tell anyone I will stab you”. The pupil refused to say what she said to the other pupil before making the threat, according to the school.

Court documents referred to a behaviour record for the pupil, known as TTT to protect her anonymity, which stated: “TTT was speaking negatively about the school and her plans to ‘destroy it’.

“She said it would involve fewer people than last time. She then threatened another girl by saying she would stab her if the girl said anything about it.”

Lawyers for the pupil claimed that the exclusion was a “great shock” to the pupil and that her account of events had not been taken into consideration.

A quarter of Michaela’s pupils are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Around half of the pupils are Muslim.

A prayer ban was initiated in March last year after some pupils began praying in the playground. An online petition demanding a prayer room was launched. Teachers began to receive threats and feared for their safety, according to the school.

Ms Birbalsingh said that the school’s governing body responded by banning prayer in school altogether.

In a statement released on Wednesday, she said: “We have always been clear to parents and pupils when they apply to Michaela that because of our restrictive building combined with our strict ethos that does not allow children to wander around the school unsupervised, we cannot have a prayer room.

“At Michaela, those from all religions make sacrifices so that we can maintain a safe secular community.”

The pupil’s legal challenge is being funded by public money after she secured legal aid. The cost of the dispute is expected to run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.