School assistant plans to appeal after tribunal loss
Rod MINCHIN & Shashana BROWN
gloslivenews@reachplc.com
ASACKED school assistant has lost her tribunal case over claims she was dismissed because of religious beliefs.
Kristie Higgs, 44, was suspended for gross misconduct by Farmor’s School in Fairford, after sharing Facebook posts criticising plans to teach LGBT relationships in primary schools last year.
The mother-of-two reportedly shared and commented on posts which raised concerns about relationship education at her son’s Church of England primary school.
Students were to learn about the No Outsiders in Our School programme, which is a series of books teaching the Equality Act in primary schools.
Mrs Higgs, who was posting on Facebook under her maiden name, shared two posts in October 2018 to around 100 friends. An anonymous complaint was made to the school and Mrs Higgs was suspended and later dismissed for gross misconduct following a disciplinary hearing.
Mrs Higgs, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, took the school to an employment tribunal arguing she had been unlawfully discriminated against because of her Christian beliefs.
In its ruling, the tribunal concluded that her religion was a “protected characteristic” as defined by the Equality Act. This contradicted rulings made in two earlier employment tribunals considering claims for discrimination on the grounds of religion by people opposed to transgender recognition.
Employment Judge Derek Reed said: “The belief that sex and gender are ‘set at birth’ may be upsetting to certain people, but if freedom of speech and the rights within articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights only extended to expressions of belief that could upset no-one they would be worthless.
“Essentially, to find as the tribunals did in the cases to which we were referred would amount to a declaration that it is ‘open season’ on people that hold and express the beliefs in question - that they do not deserve protection.
“That seemed to us to be a strange and somewhat disturbing conclusion.”
The school had denied dismissing Mrs Higgs because of her religious beliefs and said she was sacked because of the language used in the posts.
In the ruling, the judge said: “We concluded that not only the dismissal but the entire proceedings taken against Mrs Higgs were motivated by a concern on the part of the school that, by reason of her posts, she would be perceived as holding unacceptable views in relation to gay and trans people - views which in fact she vehemently denied that she did hold.”
Speaking afterwards, Mrs Higgs said she was “disappointed” with the judgment and planned to appeal.
“I strongly maintain that I lost my job because of my Christian beliefs, beliefs which our society does not appear to tolerate or even understand any more,” she said. “I shared these posts as a mother who was deeply concerned about the compulsory sex education being forced on my nine-year-old son at a Church of England primary school.”
A spokesman for the school said: “The school is pleased with the decision of the employment tribunal.
“The school, at all times, has worked to ensure that all our pupils are treated with equality, so they can thrive in an inclusive environment.
“We recognise and respect the rights of all our pupils, families and employees to hold and manifest their beliefs.
“The school’s actions were in response to the particular language used on social media, which was not reflective of our ethos as a school.
“We hope that the judgment bring this matter to a close.” will