school receptionist 'facing sack' after daughter talks about Jesus to classmate

[Rrose Selavy]

I have a feeling there is more to this than reported....

Mrs Cain sent a private email to close friends to ask for prayers for her daughter after she was called into the school where she worked in Crediton, Devon, to be reprimanded.
Her daughter Jasmine had been overheard by a teacher discussing heaven and God with a friend and had been pulled to one side and told off.
Mrs Cain contacted 10 close friends from her church by email but the message fell into the hands of Gary Read, the headmaster of Landscore Primary School where she works.
The 38-year-old mother of two is now being investigated for professional misconduct for allegedly making claims against the school and its staff.
Mrs Cain has been told she may be disciplined and was warned she could face dismissal.

Her case is being supported by the Christian Institute who said Mrs Cain was the latest example of a Christian being persecuted by society.

More here

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...-daughter-talks-about-Jesus-to-classmate.html

 

[Farencue]

That weekend, she emailed a prayer request from her personal computer at home to 10 trusted friends from her church.
Personally, I find it interesting that the church members were described as "trusted friends" in the context of this story.

Mrs Cain said she still did not know how Mr Read came into possession of the email.



"He said that he was going to investigate me for professional misconduct because I had been making allegations about the school and staff to members of the public."
Why didnt Mrs Cain hand over a copy of the email to the journalist, surely its contents were no reason to be "persecuted"?

A lot of journalism sucks these days, the bias toward sensationalism (in this case the "persecution of Christians") is at the forefront while the actual facts lurk in the background.

So yes Rrose, you are right, there would definitely be more to this story.

 

[Cainkane1]

I feel sorry for the little girl and the woman.

 

[Farencue]

Cainkane - why do you feel sorry for the woman?

 

[fingersmith]

The complete lack of relevant details makes this hard to comment on, I wonder if they'll come out, what did the child say and what did the email say?

The end of the article did confuse me somewhat

As The Daily Telegraph disclosed on Monday, teachers now face being disciplined if they discuss their religious beliefs in school.

The profession's regulator, the General Teaching Council, has drawn up a new code of practice that states classroom staff must "promote equality and value diversity".

It was an alleged lack of commitment to this requirement that was used to suspend Mrs Petrie.

The "Mrs Petrie" referred to is the nurse who was suspended briefly, unrelated to this case, but mentioned in the article. Surely she was not suspended because she did not adhere to the GTC code of practice or am I missing something?

 

[Farencue]

Hmm, sloppy journalism definitely. Maybe the nursing profession has a similar code of practice?
And we dont know what the daughter said when she was discussing Jesus with a classmate. For all we know it could have been "if you dont believe in Jesus you will go to hell".
I doubt she was pulled to one side and told off for saying something like "Jesus loves us" because surely the teacher doing the telling off would have been breaking the code of value diversity?

 

[fingersmith]

Well This article sheds a little more light on things.
Specifically:

She thinks Mr Read was passed the email by a governor, who is married to one of the churchgoers she sent it to.

And also that what the child was saying in essence was telling another child they would go to Hell if they did not believe in God, though the specific wording is in debate. At any rate it upset the other child enough that the child's mother made a complaint.

 

[Farencue]

Mrs Petrie said: 'This mum must be feeling so alone, because that's how I felt. They make you feel guilty for your beliefs
Hypocrisy anyone?

I might have to move on over to the paranormal thread - I thought the kid would have to have been talking about going to Hell to be reprimanded
There is ALWAYS a backstory in "journalism" such as Rrose linked to. Why do they always go the sensationalism angle? Not all of us want to be dumbed down by the media.
Hee hee, Mrs Cain should realise not many people have 10 "close,trusted" friends, my grandmother always said if you could count them on one hand you were ahem.. blessed.

 

[Dave Rogers]

Some more information is on the BBC News website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7885952.stm

The headmaster's side of the story:

Mr Read said: "This is not an issue about Christianity, it is about religious intolerance. Jasmine told another pupil 'if you don't believe in God you're going to go to hell'. The girl was upset and her teacher asked me for advice about what to do. Jasmine was told it is not OK to say that, but it is OK to discuss what you believe with others."

He also denied that the mother was facing the sack, but was being investigated for making unfair allegations against the school.

From the BBC article it would appear to me that the headmaster's position is entirely reasonable, and the mother is simply trying to assert her right to religious intolerance. Then again, that's the way my personal bias would incline me. I'd be interested to see how this story develops, but I suspect it'll drop below the news threshold fairly quickly.

Dave

 

[Dancing David]

This will be in the mouth of Blush Rimbaugh and Billo the Clown soon enough....

 

[Beerina]

...because every Right Thinking Person knows it's Best to let the government silence people using a twisted perversion of why the government is not empowered to silence people.

 

[quixotecoyote]

Yes because telling six-year-olds it's wrong to threaten classmates with hell is two steps off stalinism.