Atheist parents take primary school to court as they say assembly prayers breach children’s human rights

Authored by telegraph.co.uk and submitted by ManiaforBeatles

Atheist parents are taking their children's primary school to the High Court, claiming that biblical re-enactments and praying in assembly are a breach of their human rights.

Lee Harris and his wife Lizanne have won permission to bring a judicial review against Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust (ODST) after arguing that Burford Primary School is acting “unlawfully”.

They allege that since ODST took over the running of the community school in 2015, they noticed “harmful aspects of evangelism spreading into assembly” and other parts of their pupils' education.

In the first case of its kind, the parents are arguing that this interferes with their children's right to receive an education “free from religious interference”.

ODST is a multi-academy trust that runs 33 schools, all of which are Church of England bar four, including Burford Primary, which are designated as non-religious “community schools”.

The trust says on its website that it “operates within the family of the Diocese of Oxford” adding: “We are motivated by our Christian values to serve our local communities, but we do not impose those values”.

Humanists UK, which is supporting Mr and Mrs Harris, believe this will be a test case to challenge schools which hold a daily act of Christian worship without providing a suitable alternative for non-Christians.

top2000 on July 29th, 2019 at 14:16 UTC »

praying in assembly ?

why not in c++

lkc159 on July 29th, 2019 at 12:11 UTC »

Learning about religion is fine. Even learning about how others practice religion is fine. Forcing others to observe/follow along with your religious practices is not.

There's a very simple way to make sure fairness is observed.

If your religious practice affects only you, it's okay.

If your religious practice affects others, then it's not.

Remember:

It's "I can't do that because of my religion", not "YOU can't do that because of MY religion".

Edited for clarity because this comment got way more responses than I expected:

I agree that we all have to coexist, that no one lives in a vacuum, and what we believe will fundamentally affect how we interact with others. So I guess you could say I don't think what I've said above regarding "affecting others" should be a hard and fast rule, but more of a general guideline to live by.

Wanna talk about abortion? Don't demand that it's banned for people not of your religion. Food? Don't insist that every eatery is Halal or that nobody should ever eat pork. Maybe not the best examples, but things like that in general.

Jaquander on July 29th, 2019 at 12:10 UTC »

One of the biggest shocks for any child in modern-day Britain is going from a catholic primary school into a standard comprehensive secondary school.