U.K. JEWISH SCHOOL COULD BE CLOSED FOR NOT TEACHING LGBT AGENDA
BY MICHAEL TENNANT
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
An Orthodox Jewish girls’ school in England may be forced to close
because it refuses to teach its young students the government-approved
line on LGBT issues.
Vishnitz Girls School, a private school with 212 pupils aged three to
eight, has endured three inspections over the past year-and-a-half from
the British government’s Office for Standards in Education, Children’s
Services and Schools (Ofsted). According to The Independent:
While fee-paying schools such as Vishnitz
do not operate under the same curriculum as mainstream state schools,
they are obliged to meet two separate sets of standards for sex and
relationships education laid out by the Department for Education and
Ofsted.
Ofsted makes clear that schools are not
expected to “promote” ideas about sexual orientation or gender
reassignment, but they are expected to “encourage pupils’ respect for
other people, paying particular regard to the protected characteristics
set out in the 2010 Equalities Act.”
Gill Robins of Christians in Education
blogged
that the first “emergency inspection” occurred in February 2016,
supposedly for “safeguarding concerns.” Subsequent inspections have
found that all Ofsted’s concerns but one have been addressed. The latest
report says that pupils are “well motivated, have positive attitudes to
learning and are confident in thinking for themselves”; teachers are
excellent; assessments are properly utilized; students are well-behaved;
and the school environment is safe. The report even praises the school
for being “clearly focused on teaching pupils to respect everybody,
regardless of beliefs and lifestyle.”
There’s just one problem, as Ofsted sees it: Because of their faith,
the school’s administrators refuse to teach their young charges about
sexual orientation and gender reassignment. “This,” inspectors wrote,
“restricts pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and
does not promote equality of opportunity in ways that take account of
differing lifestyles.” In short, if the school’s orthodoxy conflicts
with present-day progressive orthodoxy, the school must jettison its
very raison d’être.
An Ofsted spokesperson told
The Independent, “Parents have
the right, on behalf of their children, to expect an education that
conforms to their religious beliefs and is in compliance with the law.”
But what happens when their immutable religious beliefs conflict with
the ever-changing law? Parents are paying roughly $6,600 a year to send
their girls to Vishnitz, presumably because they desire to educate them
in the Jewish faith and all it entails, including opposition to
homosexual behavior and transgenderism. School officials, perhaps
fearing eternal consequences more than temporal ones, told inspectors
they would not change their policy on such matters.
Schools Week writes:
According to guidance on regulating
independent schools, “schools that do not meet the standards must
improve so they do meet them, or close.”
If a school found to be failing any of
the independent school standards does not improve, the [Department for
Education] has the power to take it off the register, making it a
criminal offense to remain open.
Those hostile to faith certainly want to see that happen. Jay Harman, an education campaign manager at Humanists UK, told
Schools Week,
“If schools are not willing to meet the required standards and are
found to be failing time and time again, proper sanctions must be
implemented.”
“The argument used to justify such sanctions,” penned Robins, “is
that [sexual orientation and transgenderism] are protected
characteristics. So is religious belief, but it’s now been made crystal
clear by Ofsted that the Equality Act is actually hierarchical, with
sexual orientation and gender reassignment at the apex of the Act. All
equalities are equal, but some equalities are more equal than others.”
Ofsted, in the words of Catholic Member of Parliament Sir Edward
Leigh, “appears to be guilty of trying to enforce a kind of
state-imposed orthodoxy on certain moral and religious questions.” Yet
even that isn’t enough to satisfy the militant Left. According to
The Independent,
“LGBT campaigners warned the policy still left ‘loopholes’ for
religious schools in that they are allowed some flexibility in their
teaching ... ‘in keeping with their faith.’” Undoubtedly they will push
for increasingly strict standards that will eventually outlaw the
teaching of anything conflicting with the LGBT agenda.
Thus, it is difficult to argue with Robins’ assessment that “there is
little chance of the Jewish community being allowed to continue to live
in peace, with parents raising and educating their children as they
think best.” Indeed, another Jewish school, Bnos Zion of Bobov, has
already been investigated for making “no reference to protected
characteristics for sexual orientation and gender reassignment,” reports
Schools Week.
Christian schools that adhere to traditional biblical teachings
cannot be far behind. “In 2014 a highly ranked Catholic school in
Suffolk drew criticism from government inspectors for allegedly failing
to prepare students for modern life in Britain,” notes the
Catholic News Agency.
“The school filed a formal complaint about the investigation. The
school said parents complained that the inspectors asked children as
young as ten about same-sex sexual acts and transsexualism.”
With religious belief and sexual orientation both “protected
characteristics” under the law, Robins asserts that the government has
“just two options — protect the right of individuals to live and raise
their children in accordance with their faith, or make a mockery of the
Equality Act by closing schools that fail to comply with your LGBT
agenda.” Is there any doubt that, absent a major public outcry, the
powers that be will choose the latter?
