But now arguments can proceed
In a highly unusual move, two judges scheduled to be on a panel to hear the case of a woman pastoral assistant fired after she objected to the sex education program in her local school have been dismissed for bias.
According to a report from the Christian Legal Center, the head of the Employment Appeal Tribunal has released two panel members from the case involving Christian mother Kristie Higgs.
Her lawyers had appealed to the court pointing out the evidence of bias for Andrew Morris, one panel member, and a transgender activist, Edward Lord.
Lord “had made a series of public statements relating to key issues in Higgs’ case,” including comments about censoring those who speak out regarding LGBT activist, especially transgenderism.
The head of the tribunal, Judge Eady, said she would judge the case alone after Morris was removed.
He was “at the relevant time,” part of a group where he was a senior official that campaigned on the same issues that Higgs had questioned.
“Whether or not he agreed, as a senior officer he associated with the views expressed by NEU [National Education Union]. Many unions express views on matters of current issues, but NEU took a particular interest in the issues in question,” Eady concluded.
Higgs, a former pastoral assistant, was sacked for “raising concerns about how transgenderism and compulsory sex education was to be taught at her son’s Church of England (CofE) primary school in 2019.”
She was punished for sharing a petition opposing the introduction of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in primary schools and an article criticizing certain books aimed a primary school aged children for promoting such ideas a “transgenderism” and “gender fluidity,” the report said.
Higgs’ lawyer, Richard O’Dair, said in court that Morris “was a high-ranking member of a very substantial institution which took a very clear stance on matters on which the claimant took a contrary view.”
Just days ago, the government launched an urgent review into sex education in UK schools. Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is said to be personally alarmed about government guidance produced in 2019, the year of Kristie’s dismissal, that was endorsed by LGBT charity Stonewall.”
