Sol Invictus
01-09-2010, 04:31 PM
By JONATHAN PETRE
Last updated at 1:04 AM on 21st December 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237204/Christian-teacher-lost-job-told-praying-sick-girl-bullying.html#ixzz0eyEGdlFc
A Christian teacher fears she may never work again after she was sacked for offering to pray for a sick pupil.
Olive Jones, 54, said she had been made to feel like a criminal, and claimed that Christians were being persecuted due to 'political correctness'.
Mrs Jones, who taught children not well enough to attend school, said that after she raised the topic of prayer during a visit to a 12-year-old's house, the girl's mother lodged a complaint.
Just hours later, said Mrs Jones, her boss told her she would no longer be working for Oak Hill Short Stay School and Tuition Service, in Nailsea, Somerset.
She said managers had ruled her comments could be perceived as 'bullying'.
Mrs Jones had told the girl and her mother that there were people praying for them. She said: 'I asked the child if I could pray for her. She looked at her mother, who said, "We come from a family who do not believe", so I did not pray.'
Mrs Jones, who has two sons -one a Royal Marine, the other a student - said of her dismissal: 'I've been left devastated. I don't know if I will be able to go back to teaching in the same role. It would be very difficult.
A spokesman for North Somerset Council, said: 'A complaint has been made by a parent. This complaint is being investigated.'
Mrs Jones' dismissal has outraged Christian groups, who say new equality regulations are driving Christianity to the margins of society.
They said the case echoed that of community nurse Caroline Petrie, who was suspended last December after offering to pray for a patient but who was later reinstated after a national outcry.
Coincidentally, Mrs Petrie lives nearby and has been a friend of Mrs Jones for some years.
Speaking at her home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, Mrs Jones said: ‘Teaching was my dream from the age of 16. It is as if 20 years of my work, which I was passionate about, has gone. It is like a grief.
‘I have been sleeping badly and been in a daze. I haven’t even got around to putting up a Christmas tree or decorations. So much for Christmas cheer.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237204/Christian-teacher-lost-job-told-praying-sick-girl-bullying.html#ixzz0eyEQsqQU
Last updated at 1:04 AM on 21st December 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237204/Christian-teacher-lost-job-told-praying-sick-girl-bullying.html#ixzz0eyEGdlFc
A Christian teacher fears she may never work again after she was sacked for offering to pray for a sick pupil.
Olive Jones, 54, said she had been made to feel like a criminal, and claimed that Christians were being persecuted due to 'political correctness'.
Mrs Jones, who taught children not well enough to attend school, said that after she raised the topic of prayer during a visit to a 12-year-old's house, the girl's mother lodged a complaint.
Just hours later, said Mrs Jones, her boss told her she would no longer be working for Oak Hill Short Stay School and Tuition Service, in Nailsea, Somerset.
She said managers had ruled her comments could be perceived as 'bullying'.
Mrs Jones had told the girl and her mother that there were people praying for them. She said: 'I asked the child if I could pray for her. She looked at her mother, who said, "We come from a family who do not believe", so I did not pray.'
Mrs Jones, who has two sons -one a Royal Marine, the other a student - said of her dismissal: 'I've been left devastated. I don't know if I will be able to go back to teaching in the same role. It would be very difficult.
A spokesman for North Somerset Council, said: 'A complaint has been made by a parent. This complaint is being investigated.'
Mrs Jones' dismissal has outraged Christian groups, who say new equality regulations are driving Christianity to the margins of society.
They said the case echoed that of community nurse Caroline Petrie, who was suspended last December after offering to pray for a patient but who was later reinstated after a national outcry.
Coincidentally, Mrs Petrie lives nearby and has been a friend of Mrs Jones for some years.
Speaking at her home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, Mrs Jones said: ‘Teaching was my dream from the age of 16. It is as if 20 years of my work, which I was passionate about, has gone. It is like a grief.
‘I have been sleeping badly and been in a daze. I haven’t even got around to putting up a Christmas tree or decorations. So much for Christmas cheer.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237204/Christian-teacher-lost-job-told-praying-sick-girl-bullying.html#ixzz0eyEQsqQU