I see that Lydia Playfoot has lost her case at the high court.
A school that banned a teenage girl from wearing a “purity” ring to symbolise her opposition to sex before marriage did not discriminate against her religious beliefs, the High Court ruled today
This, to any reasonable observer, would have been blindingly obvious. The case should never have been brought. Quite apart from the absurd silver ring thing’s raison d’etre being an American fundamentalist tag-on to the core Christian beliefs, a school should always have the authority to impose a dress code. This one did not even closely resemble discrimination against Playfoot’s beliefs.
Lydia Playfoot, 16, claimed that the ban imposed by the Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, constituted “unlawful interference” with her fundamental rights to express her Christian faith.
The wearing of a silly silver ring pledging virginity until marriage has bugger all to do with her Christian faith and not letting her wear it in school does not “unlawfully interfere” with that faith. This was a trivial case that should have been summarily dismissed and the plaintiffs should bear all costs. The judge has, quite rightly ordered Mr Playfoot to stump up £12,000 towards the schools costs. I trust that this will discourage him from taking up similar trivial cases in future.
But the school told the girls to remove their rings as the wearing of jewellery contravened its uniform policy.
This is an entirely reasonable position. That it ended up in court is a disgrace.
Judge Supperstone ruled, however, that the ring could not be regarded as a proper Christian symbol, and therefore the school had not breached the Act.
Quite. The Christian symbol is a cross, not a silly ring invented by the fundamentalist nutjobs from across the pond.
She said she believed the ruling “will mean that slowly, over time, people such as school governors, employers, political organisations and others will be allowed to stop Christians from publicly expressing and practising their faith”.
Actually, that would be no bad thing. Perhaps schools should adopt the French system whereby no religious symbolism is allowed on school premises; that way everyone is equal and everyone gets on with the business of education rather than proselytising their particular brand of superstition.
She added: “Over two years ago, I was concerned at the number of teenagers who were catching sexually transmitted diseases, getting pregnant and/or having abortions.
The Government’s sex education programme is not working, and the pressure on young people to ‘give in’ to sex continues to increase. This is often because of the media’s focus on sex and the expectations of others.”
A nice little piece of religious propaganda straight from the mouth of… well, not Lydia Playfoot, one can be fairly certain. Rather, whoever put her up to this wasteful exercise in the first instance. If you don’t want sex, say “no”. If you do want sex, use a condom. It is not particularly difficult – although it would seem that it is for the Playfoots.
The headmaster, Leon Nettley, said the school was “delighted” with the outcome but regretted that the case had gone so far.
Indeed. The judge has refused the Playfoots the right to appeal. I hope they take the hint.