Christian UK teaching assistant sacked for Facebook posts criticizing transgenderism wins appeal

A Christian UK teaching assistant named Kristie Higgs won a ground-breaking appeal Friday after being unjustly terminated four years ago for Facebook posts that criticized transgenderism and sex education in her son’s Church of England primary school.

(Video Credit: Christian Concern)

A judge overturned a previous ruling upholding her dismissal in her long battle to protect free speech for Christians.

Fox News reported, “Kristie Higgs said she was initially fired from her role as a teaching assistant at the Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, England after an anonymous person noticed her Facebook posts speaking out against her son’s school’s plan to introduce books containing transgender ideology and reported the posts to the head teacher.”

Higgs claimed her sacking was an attack against her Christian faith. The school claimed otherwise of course.

“From the beginning, despite the many attempts by the school to suggest otherwise, this has always been about my Christian beliefs and me being discriminated against for expressing them in my own time,” the teacher and mother-of-two told BBC News.

Higgs had also gathered signatures from her family members and friends via a petition on Facebook that protested plans to implement the curriculum.

“THEY ARE BRAINWASHING OUR CHILDREN!” Higgs asserted online. “Children will be taught that all relationships are equally valid and ‘normal’, so that same-sex marriage is exactly the same as traditional marriage, and that gender is a matter of choice, not biology, so that it’s up to them what sex they are.”

She made the posts in 2018 following a letter from her son’s school stating it would be using the No Outsiders program to promote diversity and inclusion. The program included introducing books such as “My Princess Boy” and “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” which have LGBTQ themes.

A parent reported Higgs’ posts to her employer who then suspended her.

After a six-hour disciplinary hearing, she was dismissed for gross misconduct. She was reportedly told by her bosses that her Christian beliefs, expressed in the Facebook posts, were akin to that of a “pro-Nazi right-wing extremist,” according to a press release.

On Friday, Higgs finally won her appeal when President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London Jennifer Eady ruled in her favor. The judge contended that “the freedom to manifest belief (religious or otherwise) and to express views relating to that belief are essential rights in any democracy.”

Eady also noted that the right to manifest the beliefs, no matter who they might offend, is protected without limits. She had also previously dismissed two members of the appeal panel for perceived bias. Those two individuals had advocated for LGBTQ rights.

The judge stated that a future hearing would decide whether the school’s decision was “because of, or related to, the manifestation of the claimant’s protected beliefs, or were due to a justified objection to the manner of that manifestation.”

An employment tribunal ruled in October 2020 that Higgs was not the victim of discrimination or harassment due to her being fired by the school. She proceeded to appeal that ruling.

The BBC is reporting that Higgs’ case will now receive a fresh tribunal.

“I am pleased that the courts have overturned the previous judgment, but I am frustrated by the further delays to receiving justice,” Higgs said regarding the decision.

“I was, and still am, appalled by the sexual ideology that was being introduced to my son’s Church of England primary school. I will never forget the moment, shaking and tearful, that I was ordered to leave the school premises after my Christian beliefs were aligned with Nazism. Since I lost the job I loved, there has been so many disturbing revelations about transgender ideology in schools and children being taught inappropriate sex education. I feel so justified and vindicated for sharing and expressing the concerns that I did,” she stated.

Higgs added, “Christian parents must have the freedom to bring their children up in line with their Christian beliefs. I want young children to be protected from transgender ideology and Christians must also be able to share their opinions and beliefs without fear of losing their jobs.”

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