Christian teacher sacked
A Christian teacher with more than 20 years’ experience has been expelled from her job for offering to pray for a sick pupil.
Olive Jones, 54, taught maths to children who were too ill to go to school. One day, a female pupil was too ill to take her lesson, so Mrs Jones spoke to her mother about miracles and asked whether she might pray for the girl.
The girl’s mother said that they did not believe, so Mrs Jones did not press the matter. However the mother complained to the authorities, which was unknown to Mrs Jones at the time. At a subsequent lesson, Mrs Jones spoke again with the girl, but said that she left the lesson on good terms with the girl’s mother.
However, she was hauled in front of the head of the Oak Hill Short Stay School and Tuition Service in Nailsea, North Somerset, accused of bullying and subsequently sacked.
Mrs Jones said: ‘I am not angry with my bosses, as they are trying to interpret new equality and diversity policies. But I am angry with the politically-correct system and about the fact that you can’t mention anything to do with faith to people who might find it of use.
‘My main concern is the interpretation of the policies concerned, which seem very ambiguous. I feel I am being persecuted for speaking about my faith in a country that is supposed to be Christian’.
Barrister Andrea Minichiello Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre, which is backing Mrs Jones, said: ‘This story is sadly becoming all too familiar in this country. It is the result of a heavy-handed so-called equalities agenda that discriminates against Christians and seeks to eliminate Christian expression from the public square’.
