A Christian teacher in the United Kingdom is claiming that she was booted from her position after informing a student that she was pro-life during a discussion in the classroom, going on to describe the shock of losing her job over the comments which she says were just an honest response to a question from a student. Anita Meston, the teacher in question, was a secondary school teacher who taught both French and humanities at Biddick Academy.
Meston sat down for an exclusive interview with Fox News where she revealed that she was giving a history lesson concerning the bombing of Dresden when students started asking her questions about her personally held views on Israel and abortion. The teacher said she asked students to compare the bombing of Dresden to the conflict raging between Israel and Gaza as a means of inspiring classroom discussion.
As the discussion continued to progress, one of Meston’s students asked her if she supported abortion. “And I said, ‘No, I’m pro-life,'” Meston recounted during the interview. “And she said, ‘Well, what does that mean?’” Meston then explained that her Christian beliefs prevent her from participating in the act of an abortion if she were employed in a medical setting.
“And I said, also, I know women who’ve had abortions who’ve regretted them,” Meston said, according to Fox News. “And she then responded with, ‘Well I know women who’ve had abortions who haven’t regretted them,’ and I said, ‘Well that’s fair enough.’ And then we moved back to the lesson, whatever was left of it.” However, the teacher said that conversation with that short exchange cost her the position.
Meston said she was “quite shocked actually,” going on to provide details of the subsequent meeting she had with her former employer’s head teacher. She said the head teacher accused her of sharing personal opinions in class before going on to say that she could no longer work at the school as a result. “She said, ‘Thank you very much for your service, but we can’t keep you on at the school,'” Meston told Fox.
The teacher then said the experience made her feel humiliated, despite believing she hadn’t done anything wrong. “Well, it’s shock, isn’t it?” Meston said. “And then, also feeling … humiliated in a way. Although I knew that I hadn’t really done anything wrong, you still get that sense that, you know, you’re being kicked out of your job and having to tell other teachers why and the first teacher I spoke to actually said to me, ‘Well, a lot of us have similar views to you, but we’re not keen. … We’re frightened to express them.'”
Meston’s legal representative, Jeremiah Igunnubole, also spoke with Fox, saying that he believes her firing was connected to the expression of Christian beliefs and violated protections afforded under British law. “Well, teachers should teach children how to think, not what to think,” Igunnubole said. The attorney then said that Meston had not attempted to press her beliefs on students, but simply responded to a question before continuing the lesson.
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“She did not seek to indoctrinate. She did not seek to impose her beliefs on the students. She simply answered a question,” he explained. He also said that Meston’s case is moving forward toward a preliminary hearing before the Newcastle Employment Tribunal. A spokesperson for The North East Learning Trust, which Biddick Academy is a part of, issued a statement concerning the incident.
“While we are not able to comment on this individual case, we have a clear staff code of conduct, which is consistently applied to protect the safety and wellbeing of our children at all times,” the statement read. Fox revealed that it reached out to the Newcastle Employment Tribunal for a comment, but as of this writing, they have not received a response.
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