Christian teacher fired for saying she is 'pro-life'

A teacher at a state school was fired after telling students she was pro-life.

Anita Meston is a teacher at Biddick Academy in Sunderland. While she was covering an history lesson in March last year, she was asked by a pupil whether she was ‘pro-abortion’. She replied that she was “pro-life”. When asked to elaborate about her position, Meston said that she was a Christian, and that she knew women who had had an abortion and regretted the decision. The pupil replied that she knew women who had not regretted having an abortion, to which Meston replied, “Fair enough”.

The following day she was summoned to a meeting with the school’s headteacher, who told her that a complaint had been made against her. When asked what happened, Meston replied that she had only shared her personal views in response to a direct question. During the same lesson, which focused on the bombing of Dresden in World War II, Meston had asked whether similar moral questions surrounded the current conflict in Palestine. When asked by a pupil, Meston said that she was “pro-Israel” but lamented the deaths of innocent people in Gaza.

Following the meeting with the headteacher, Meston was told her contract would be terminated. She had been dismissed for “sharing personal opinions on political issues with pupils”. The school’s headteacher said there was a “real concern” that Meston would continue to “cause harm or distress to pupils”. There had been four previous incidents where the school had raised concerns about her behaviour.

Meston said that she was “profoundly shocked” at the decision, which she claims is “censorship”, and is suing the school for discriminating against her as a Christian, which she argues is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

“I do not believe it is a teacher’s role to impose beliefs unrelated to the lesson in the classroom,” she said. “I merely acknowledged my students’ questions and provided truthful answers before redirecting them back to the lesson at hand. If our national education system continues to claim to foster inclusion and tolerance, this must include tolerance of perspectives with which others disagree. In a free and just society, teachers should not be fired for honestly expressing their deeply held beliefs in response to questions in the classroom. What happened to me is nothing short of censorship, and this precedent cannot be allowed to stand.”

Jeremiah Igunnubole, a barrister at the Alliance Defending Freedom, who are supporting Meston’s case, said: “The purpose of education is to form young people who can engage with the world around them, and this inevitably includes encountering people with different perspectives. If teachers are dismissed solely for views that students or staff disagree with, the next generation will learn that it is acceptable to censor opinions they dislike. This does not bode well for the future of fundamental freedoms in our society.”