CHRISTIAN SCHOOL WORKER WINS APPEAL OVER LGBTQ+ POSTS – The High Court rules her dismissal was unlawful
A Christian school worker who was sacked after she shared Facebook posts raising concerns about lessons in LGBTQ+ relationships for primary school children has won her battle in the court of appeal.
Kristie Higgs was dismissed from her role as a staff of Farmor’s, a secondary school in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2019 after an anonymous complaint from a parent at the school.
Three Court of Appeal judges ruled in her favour on Wednesday describing the decision to sack her for gross misconduct as “unlawfully discriminatory” and “disproportionate”. Higgs welcomed the ruling as “a landmark day for Christian freedom and free speech”.
Higgs was dismissed after reposting and commenting on messages on her personal Facebook account that criticised plans to teach the No Outsiders equalities programme at her son’s Church of England primary school.
The posts referred to “brainwashing” children and criticised the teaching of “gender fluidity” and the view that same-sex marriage was equivalent to marriage between a man and a woman, which conflicted with Higgs’s Christian faith.
Lord Justice Underhill, sitting with Lord Justice Bean and Lady Justice Falk, ruled that the dismissal of an employee “merely because they have expressed a religious or other protected belief to which the employer, or a third party with whom it wishes to protect its reputation, objects will constitute unlawful direct discrimination within the meaning of the Equality Act”.
An employment tribunal finding in 2020 which held that Higgs’s dismissal was still lawful, was subsequently overturned by an employment appeal tribunal (EAT) in 2023.
Kristie said this was a victory for Free Speech and Freedom of Religion.
