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UK: Court rules against Christian parent who claims primary school indoctrinates small children in LGBT issues

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A UK court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Christian mother against her son’s primary school, which she alleges is indoctrinating pupils as young as five on LGBT issues and not allowing parents to opt their children out.

Izzie Montague filed suit against the Heavers Farm Primary in South-East London after a series of events that caused the mother to feel she was being bullied and her child was being victimized because of her refusal to celebrate the gay lifestyle.

Matters came to a head when, in 2018, the school invited children and their parents to take part in a “Proud to be Me” parade which coincided with Gay Pride month.

In a blog post the school said the event was about “the diversity of our whole school community and tackling bullying.” When Montague asked for her son to be excused on religious grounds, the school refused. “I thought this was completely unreasonable,” Montague said in a statement.

“Schools are supposed to be tolerant of different faiths as well as different sexualities. Within our faith we teach that a man and a woman together is what makes a family, but in my eyes the school was promoting a different type of lifestyle to the pupils.”

Montague kept her son at home on the day of the parade, and no sanctions were issued against the child by the school. However, Montague felt the school was intolerant of her Christian views. When she attended the school to discuss the matter, one of the teachers joined a meeting wearing a T-shirt with the slogan: ‘Why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic when you could just be quiet?’

“It was like being bullied,” Montague said. “They stopped treating me like any other parent but were antagonistic towards me. I believe that they retaliated against me by unreasonably excluding me from the premises, victimizing my child and not taking my safeguarding concerns seriously.”

Montague first filed suit against the school in 2019, alleging direct and indirect discrimination, victimization, and breaches of statutory duties under the 1996 Education Act 1996 and the 1998 Human Rights Act. The Central London County court rejected the suit last month, but Montague has said she will appeal.