A Christian school worker who was sacked after sharing social media posts about the teaching of LGBT+ relationships in schools has won a Court Of Appeal battle.
Kristie Higgs lost her role as a pastoral administrator and work experience manager at Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2019.
Her dismissal from the secondary school came after she shared Facebook posts criticising plans to teach about LGBT+ relationships in primary schools.
The mother-of-two challenged a June 2023 Employment Appeal Tribunal judgement.
It had ruled in her favour but sent the case back to an employment tribunal for a fresh decision over whether her dismissal was lawful, which her lawyers told the Court Of Appeal was “unnecessary”.
Outside the Royal Courts Of Justice after her victory, Mrs Higgs said: “Christians have the right to express their beliefs on social media and at other non-work-related settings without fear of being punished by their employer.”
On Wednesday, three judges ruled in her favour, finding the decision to remit the case back to an employment tribunal was “unlawfully discriminatory”.
Lord Justice Underhill, sitting with Lord Justice Bean and Lady Justice Falk, said Mrs Higgs had “posted messages, mostly quoted from other sources”.
She was “objecting to government policy on sex education in primary schools”, said Justice Underhill.
The ruling said the school had tried to justify Mrs Higgs’ dismissal on the basis the posts were “intemperately expressed” and included “insulting references” and could “damage” the school’s reputation.
“However, neither the language of the posts nor the risk of reputational damage were capable of justifying the claimant’s dismissal in circumstances where she had not said anything of the kind at work or displayed any discriminatory attitudes in her treatment of pupils,” added Justice Underhill.
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Mrs Higgs shared and commented on posts which raised concerns about relationship education at her son’s Church Of England primary school.
Pupils were to learn about a series of books teaching the Equality Act.
The school has previously denied dismissing Mrs Higgs because of her religious beliefs and said she was sacked because of the language used in the posts.
