‘VICTORY FOR ALL SCHOOLS’
Defiant headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh tells parents: “If you don’t like it, don’t come to us” amid prospect of further legal action after winning the right to ban Muslim prayer rituals at her school.
Adefiant headteacher who has won the right to ban Muslim prayer rituals at her school has told parents ‘if you don’t like it, don’t come to us’ amid the threat of further legal action.
Katharine Birbalsingh, who has been called Britain’s strictest head, said the landmark ruling was a ‘victory for all schools’ as she hit out at ‘bullying identity politics’.
The Government’s former social mobility tsar also declared we need the ‘honesty’ to call out ‘deepseated progressivist racism’ in society.
Ban on prayer rituals
A pupil at her Michaela Community School in Wembley, northwest London, had claimed a ban on prayer rituals was a breach of her human rights and violated the Equality Act.
But the High Court yesterday ruled the ban was both proportionate and justified and that Miss Birbalsingh should be allowed to enforce the school’s secular ethos. After claiming victory, Miss Birbalsingh said: “If parents do not like what Michaela is, they do not need to send their children to us.”
In a lengthy statement, she also questioned why the Muslim pupil received ‘£150,000 (FJ$363,299.68) in legal aid’ to fight her case - and fears the family may launch further action.
She asked: “Can it be right for a family to receive £150,000 (FJ$363,299.68) of taxpayer-funded legal aid to bring a case like this?”
She claimed the pupil’s mother, who helped her daughter bring the case, intended to send another child to the school.
Ms Birbalsingh alleged: “At the same time, this mum has sent a letter to our lawyers suggesting that she may take us to court yet again over another issue at the school she doesn’t like, presumably once again at the taxpayer’s expense.”
A representative for the family said the figure included in Ms Birbalsingh’s statement was incorrect, with the pupil’s capped legal aid costs being lower than that sum. The representative did not comment on the suggestion of further legal action.
Elsewhere in her statement, Ms Birbalsingh said: “If our families did not like the school, they would not repeatedly choose to send their children to Michaela.
“At the two welcome events that all parents must attend before sending their child to Michaela, I run through everything that makes Michaela different to other schools: Constant supervision, family lunch, silent corridors, no prayer room, easy ways to get detention, strict uniform etc.”
She then said if parent’s don’t like what the school is, they should not send their children there.
Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said it was ‘a victory against activists trying to subvert our public institutions’.
She added: “The Equality Act is a shield, not a sword, and teachers must not be threatened.”
The case, which was brought with taxpayer-funded legal aid, will have wide implications for state schools under pressure from hardline religious groups.
The decision was welcomed by Downing Street, which said ‘heads are best placed to take decisions on what takes place in their school including how to accommodate prayer’.