Teacher sacked for prayer offer

[Gatt]

BBC News - Teacher sacked for prayer offer

[kmount]

Sigh....

[elsiegee40]

Personally, if I had a very ill child and someone offered to pray to their deity/make offerings or whatever, I'd take it in the way it was intended and thank them for their concern and kind thoughts... whether that person's beliefs matched mine or not.

 

If the person doesn't share my beliefs, they're hardly likely to pray to the deity I believe in, are they?

[synaesthesia]

Not sure which part of it is worse tbh - someone bringing their religion to work, or the reaction it invoked. I'd tend to agree with elsie above though, there's no harm intended.

 

There should be tolerance and understanding on both sides otherwise we might as well go back to the olden days of slavery, no votes for anyone who's name wasn't Smithe and whipping the house boy.

 

Annoying really, the first reaction that pops into my head is "oh, grow up".

[Gatt]

I'm not a religious person but would also agree with Elsi..

[danIT]

Lets rephase that: Teacher suspended in prayer row

 

Complaint made againt member of supply staff by parent, member of staff suspended while complaint is investigated. Fairly standard practice as far as I know?

[laserblazer]

Lets rephase that: Teacher suspended in prayer row

 

Complaint made againt member of supply staff by parent, member of staff suspended while complaint is investigated. Fairly standard practice as far as I know?

 

We have complaints made against staff all the time but they aren't suspended.

[StewartKnight]

an absolute disgrace of political correctness gone mad!

 

The LEA should hang their head in shame, as should the mother who complained!

[Andrew_C]

It is quite reasonable for an atheist parent to object to an overt "praying over" of their child. I would!

 

However, it isn't cause for dismissal. A quiet word should have sufficed. Unless there is more to this than the press are telling us, or perhaps being told themselves. As is perfectly proper, we have no idea whether this was a first offence, or whether we are talking about a militant fundamentalist missionary spreading her beliefs.

[DaveMurphy]

Next thing we know it will be priests suspended for praying for sick parishioners! the LEA need to get their act together, it's a shambles!

[dalsoth]

Agreed with some of the above. If someone said they wanted to pray to darth vader for your child because they were a follower of Jedi i think some would not be happy either. After all, to me as someone who believes all faiths are misguided and dangerous, it would be something i would definitely object to regardless of the fact that it would actually do nothing in reality.

 

Let the people of faiths pray to their gods. They do need to keep that mystic stuff to themselves though when asked in these circumstances. Who is to say the teacher did not push it on the parent? There is always more to a story than the papers or news websites report.

[witch]

I did see some more info - apparently the teacher had been told before not to push her beliefs on others.

Also, she was an 'as-and-when' supply teacher so she wasn't exactly sacked, just told that they wouldnt be using her again.

I do think though, that a bit of tolerance on both sides is the answer here and this is a bit of an over reaction.

[AngryTechnician]

I did see some more info - apparently the teacher had been told before not to push her beliefs on others.

GREAT SCOTT! You mean... a BBC News article didn't tell the whole story? I'm shocked and amazed.

[synaesthesia]

Well wouldn't surprise anyone. The BBC are only one step behind the Daily Fail for reporting quality.

[Andrew_C]

Well wouldn't surprise anyone. The BBC are only one step behind the Daily Fail for reporting quality.

Just consider how fortunate we are to have the BEEB despite all their faults, and not Chicken Noodle News, or Faux News.

[PiqueABoo]

Here's a long Daily Mail (naturally) article with more detail on what did and didn't happen.

 

As a godless sinner, I believe that sincere Christians (who tend to be the ones who offer to pray for you) although a bit irksome at times, are generally worth their weight in gold. Can be obtained elsewhere, but that little revelation came to me when I had cause to spend a couple of months hanging around a hospice.

 

Anything more than that "quiet word" seems like an absurd waste of public money.