Primary-school employee sacked having allegedly admonished students for washing feet in sinks
A teacher was banned from working with children after telling a Muslim child that “Britain is still a Christian state”, The Telegraph can disclose.
The primary school teacher was referred to his local child protection board over comments made to the pupil at a school in London. A senior detective from the Metropolitan Police’s child abuse investigation team also became involved.
The case has intensified concern among free-speech campaigners that laws intended to keep children safe from harm from adults are being deployed to crack down on Right-wing views. The Telegraph revealed this week that Jamie Michael, a former Royal Marine, was barred from working with children after posting a Facebook video protesting against illegal migrants.
In the latest case, the teacher, who does not wish to be named, was suspended and sacked for an incident in which he allegedly admonished students for washing their feet in the sinks in the boys’ lavatories. Police were also called in to investigate an alleged hate crime.
According to the child who made the complaint, the teacher told them the school was not a religious one but that there was an Islamic school a mile away if they wished to attend it instead. He also told them: “Britain is still a Christian state” and pointed out that the King was head of the Church of England.
After the feet-washing incident, the teacher tried to explain to the year six class the importance of British values of tolerance. It was claimed he reminded the children that Islam remained a minority religion in the UK.
In his legal claim against the local authority, lawyers for the teacher pointed out the school was a non-faith school and that prayers had been informally banned from the playground – and, by extension, that included washing feet in the sinks – and confined to a prayer room set aside for the purpose.
The teacher, who is now suing the local authority with backing from the Free Speech Union, was banned from working with children after the safeguarding officer concluded he had made hurtful comments about Islam and that the child had been subject to emotional harm.
The teacher succeeded in appealing the ban and is now understood to be working part-time at another school outside London.
In total, three children filed written complaints against the teacher. Nine people examined them, including the local safeguarding officer, a detective sergeant from the child abuse investigation team, two social workers, an HR adviser and the school’s headteacher.
Lord Young, the director of the Free Speech Union, said on Monday: “This teacher lost his job and almost ended up being barred from the profession for life just because he pointed out to a class of Muslim schoolchildren that the national religion of England is Anglicanism.
