Pink News reports that the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has issued a confusing decision. Gove has criticised the Catholic Education Service for ‘unintentionally blurring’ the line between faith and the illegal promotion of political views (it advised schools to ask pupils to sign the anti-gay marriage petition), while at the same time he decided that a school did not break the law. Gove’s decision seems to contradict the view of the Education Department for Wales and his decision has been criticised by both the National Secular Society and British Humanist Association.
My view is that he’s been wise. Prosecuting the school was a possibility but this would have hindered, not helped, the prospects for equal marriage law reform.
School ‘did not break the law’
The Education Secretary formally decided that St Philomena’s secondary school in Carshalton, south London, whose assembly supporting the Coalition for Marriage campaign to pupils as young as 11 was reported here earlier this year, did not break the law against political partisanship.
An anonymous pupil told Pink News the teacher delivering the assembly had described gay relationships as “unnatural” and had delivered an “out-dated, misjudged and heavily biased” presentation on marriage. The head teacher had “encouraged” pupils to sign a petition which opposes the government’s plans to allow gay couples to marry.
The school was following advice that the Catholic Education Service had sent to nearly 400 schools across England and Wales, suggesting they “draw the attention” of Catholic school pupils to the petition.
Schools legally obliged to give a “balanced presentation of opposing views” on all political issues
Section 407 of the Education Act requires schools to take all reasonable steps to ensure pupils are given a “balanced presentation of opposing views” on all political issues.
Following a complaint from the National Secular Society, the Minister of State for Schools, Nick Gibb, told the Society last week that regarding St Philomena’s school, Mr Gove had “considered the description of the assembly at which the petition was discussed, and has also taken into account the religious character of St Philomena’s School and the freedom faith schools properly have to teach about sexual relations and marriage in the context of their own religion.”
St. Philomena’s High School for Girls, Carshalton, London Borough of Sutton
Considering this, in addition to the school’s personal, social, health and economic and religious education, as well as its ethos, he concluded that the school did not break the law on political partisanship.
Wales takes a different view: Welsh Catholic schools told to ensure balance by support for equal marriage
A Welsh government investigation, in contrast, concluded that it was likely that schools which had promoted the anti-gay marriage petition would have provided an unbalanced view of a current political issue, contrary to section 407 of the Education Act. So the Welsh Minister for Education and Skills Leighton Andrews wrote to the Catholic schools telling them to deal with any imbalance in their political presentation by offering an alternative, positive view to their pupils, this time favouring marriage for gay couples.
Catholic Education Service “unintentionally” blurred faith and politics
Back in England, concerning the Catholic Education Service’s (CES) letter to all Catholic secondary schools in England and Wales suggesting they draw school children’s attention to the petition opposed to marriage equality, the minister, Mr Gibb said the Education Secretary was concerned the CES had
“unintentionally blurred the distinction between discussing issues that are a matter of faith and promoting partisan political views”. He said: “This may have led to some schools not presenting a sufficiently balanced picture to their pupils. The Secretary of State has, therefore, written to the Catholic Education Service to express his concern.”
Giving the ‘benefit of doubt’ to Catholic Education Service is wrong
Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said:
“We are pleased that the Secretary of State has acted on our request to write to the CES to remind them of the law. We do not, however, share his anxiousness to give the CES the benefit of the considerable doubt over them having breached the Education Act. By seeking to excuse their actions over the letter as ‘unintentional’, it seems he is hinting that they may be unlawful – and we do not see any basis for Mr Gove’s conclusion that the actions were ‘unintentional’. The letter seems just one more element in the Church’s carefully-thought-out strategy to exert political pressure on the Government, in this case by abusing their privileged access to pupils in publicly funded schools.”
The National Secular Society overlooks the fact that the Catholic Education Service cannot be prosecuted. Only head teachers, school governors and Sutton Council’s Education Department could have been prosecuted, under this bit of the Education Act.
If law was not broken by the school, why did Gove need to rebuke the Catholic Education Service?
The British Humanist Association’s Faith Schools Campaigner Richy Thompson said:
“If St Philomena’s hasn’t broken the law, then why did the Catholic Education Service need a rebuke from Mr Gove at all? And why did the Welsh Government conclude that schools which followed the CES’s advice, like St Philomena’s, would have broken this law? Mr Gove’s conclusion seems to be at odds with the evidence and with itself”.
What about the isolated LGBT pupils?
“However, first and foremost, it is disappointing that there is no sign of compassion from the Department for Education for gay and lesbian pupils at schools like St Philomena’s, who had to sit through an assembly in which gay marriage and civil partnerships were described as being ‘unnatural’. Such behaviour will leave pupils feeling isolated from the very body that is meant to be looking after them; it cannot be right that this is an acceptable part of the British school system.”
The Catholic Education Service has kept very quiet and has not published any response to the Minister’s rebuke so far.
Source Pink News
Should someone have been prosecuted?
The Department for Education could have decided to prosecute the governors and head teacher of St Philomena’s school, but has no legal power to take action against the instigator, the Catholic Education Service, which misleadingly advised about 400 Catholic schools by encouraging them to act in a way that risked Catholic schools breaking the ‘no political campaigning’ law. Competent, professional advice from the Catholic Education Service should have warned schools of the prosecution risk and that they should therefore reduce the risk either by saying nothing at all about signing the petition, or they should ensure political balance by telling pupils about the arguments on both sides, including those supporting equal marriage, and inform pupils of both the petitions for and against equal marriage.
Section 407 of the Education Act puts all the legal responsibility on ‘the local education authority, governing body and head teacher’, and this explains why the Catholic Education Service simply got a warning to be more careful in future - the Secretary of State ‘expressed his concern’ but couldn’t take any legal action against them.
Serious risk of political Catholic backlash against equal marriage policy
My view is that it would have been heavy-handed of the Secretary of State to take legal action against the head teacher and school governors and that any legal action would have provoked a powerful political backlash against the government’s own policy for equal marriage.
Any court action would have run into immediate legal problems of proof. The school absolutely denies it broke the law and has strongly supportive Catholic allies in the English and Welsh Bishops (they provide the Catholic Education Service, support Catholic schools, and strongly oppose marriage equality), and there would have been no shortage of vociferous Catholic legal representation. Legal action against the school would have annoyed a particularly powerful hornet’s nest.
The Education Secretary would have had to find St Philomena’s 5th and 6th form pupils who would be prepared to appear as witnesses to testify against their own head teacher and school governors. It would take particularly brave and probably foolhardy pupils to challenge their own head teacher and parent governors publicly in a law court. Those pupils would have needed strongly supportive parents.
Sometimes it’s far wiser to take no action, even when it seems clear the law has been broken.
The complaint to the Secretary of State will have had a useful effect - it’s warned Catholic schools and the Catholic Education Service and Catholic Bishops of England and Wales that they need to be much more careful in future not to break the law against political campaigning in schools.
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Thanks Chris. The actions of CES and the headteacher were clearly misguided, but I agree that the decision not to prosecute and issue a warning was the best among the poor options available. It’s unclear that court action could have succeeded. Attempted proceedings would have fired up the religious right in their conviction that Christians are being persecuted to favour the gay lobby.
As it is, I suspect that the vocal, hostile public reaction to the CES directive, especially from the pupils who were its target, has shown the CES that its directive was counter-productive. That’s a more helpful penalty than any legal sanction that might, just conceivably, have resulted.