Teaching assistant seeks compensation for ‘injury to feelings’ after being disciplined for anti-gay views
A teaching assistant is seeking compensation for “injury to feelings” after she was disciplined for her views opposing same-sex relationships.
Vicky Allen was disciplined after she told a pupil that she did not like how the biblical rainbow symbol now represented gay pride.
Christian Legal Centre’s Andrea Williams
The 51-year-old Christian teacher also told the 14-year-old autistic student that she did not approve of same-sex relationships.
Allen was disciplined after the boys mother contacted the Brannel School, in Cornwall, about the comments.
The school issued the warning to Allen for “acting in opposition to the school’s expectations with regards to equal opportunities.”
The school argues that she failed to set out a balanced view which would allow the student to make up his mind independently.
Now she is seeking to repeal the disciplinary, which comes with a formal written warning on her record for 12 months, as well as seeking compensation in Bodmin magistrates court.
Allen claims that she is being discriminated against because of her Christian beliefs.
She told The Sunday Times: “I felt like a criminal — it was unbelievable. It’s taken away any trust I had. It’s made me more cautious.”
The student asked his teacher for her views on the matter in a lesson, and Allen defends the views she expressed.
Allen said: “He asked me what I believed, so I told him my biblical beliefs. He asked me out of the blue.”
Controversial chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, Andrea Williams, who is supporting Allen, said: “Freedoms in our country are being catastrophically eroded by political correctness and fear.
“Responding to a child to describe marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a belief held by Christians, and many others around the world.”
