Teacher sacked after expressing personal view on Israel and abortion in class

[cakeorwine]

A teacher joined the school in October 2024 as a French teacher and Year 10 tutor

She was covering history. The topic was the bombing of Dresden. She also asked whether similar moral issues surrounded the current Israel-Palestine conflict, in an attempt to engage the class.

In response to a student’s question, Ms Meston affirmed that she was “pro-Israel”, but lamented the deaths of innocent people in Gaza caught up in the conflict

A student asked her whether she was “pro-abortion”, to which she responded that she was “pro-life”.

Asked to elaborate on her position, Ms Meston explained that she held this view because she was a Christian and knew women who had undergone abortions and regretted the decision.

A student replied that she knew women who had abortions without regretting them, to which Ms Meston responded: “Fair enough."

She was dismissed for “sharing personal opinions on political issues with pupils”.
The school’s headteacher said there was a “real concern” that Ms Meston would continue to “cause harm or distress to pupils”.

During her time at the school, a group of students repeatedly asked for her views on Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, to which she responded briefly that they were both popular politicians before returning to the subject of the lesson.

One pupil also asked her whether she would be attending the Reform UK party conference in February last year, after she had encountered a student at a previous Reform event.

Ms Meston said she would be attending, but maintained that she did not force her views on students at any point.

The Teachers’ Standards, set by the Department for Education, state that teachers “should generally avoid sharing personal political views unless they are entirely confident it will not be seen as promoting that viewpoint”.

The guidance adds: “When political issues are taught, they must be presented in a balanced manner.”

There are strict rules on expressing your personal opinions in class, especially on issues as heated as abortion, Gaza etc

Political impartiality in schools - GOV.UK

It sounds like this class got out of hand - she was supposed to be covering Dresden. I've been a teacher and you just say that your opinion isn't relevant. You can discuss what people think for and against

I was asked if I believe in God because I didn't pray in assembly. It's not hard to say that I don't share my beliefs in class.

Thats a weird answer to a genuine question?

All of ours did! It was good to get to know them as people. And they'd explain both sides of eg the abortion debate, and make it clear in their answers the complexities. Obviously none said things like they wanted anyone pro-life to burn in hell, etc, but they'd explain things like how back street abortions happened, and the dangers of no safe and legal abortion, and also relate it to euthanasia, getting us thinking about why this country allows women to control whether they choose to give birth or not, but won't let us have autonomy in our old age.
Yes, I remember all this, and they definitely made us think, and we all talked about it, whether we agreed or not.

Miss, Do you believe in God?

Me: My personal belief is not important in the classroom. There are people who believe in a Christian God, some believe in other types of Gods Hindus worship many Gods. The Vikings worshipped Gods such as Thor. The Romans and Greeks worshipped their Gods. Some people don't believe in a God.

That's an approach to take. No lies there.

Just not expressing a personal view but expressing what people believe and have believed

Miss, but who's correct?

It's not my place to tell you who's correct. My role is to develop your thinking skills so you can look at any evidence and come up with your own conclusion

But miss, we need spoonfeeding.

It's got to be hard to present both sides when you have a strong opinion.

But that's what teaching is about

However, there are things like Climate change where most climate scientists overwhelmingly have the consensus it's happening, You have to present the other view but how do you proportion it?

Rubbish! You think that right wing God botherers don’t like to push their agenda all the time? 😂

DS had a Religious studies teacher who has seriously outlandish views about various conspiracies including Covid being a big hoax, 5G will cause the birds to stop flying and other random nonsense.

She’s a total loon but thankfully, most of the kids ignore what she says and just laugh amongst themselves.

You believe that left leaning teachers give their personal views on Trump and Gaza in the classroom to students.

What makes you believe that?

@ItWasGreatWhenItAllBegan

Was it a genuine question? I've never seen an online conversation where British values get mentioned where there there wasn't an almost immediate reply like yours, invariably from someone who - it emerges after a couple of replies - rejects the entire concept of British values. So if it was a genuine question, then you were just highly unfortunate to genuinely ask the exact same question that is eternally asked non genuinely.

How do you not criticise Putin or Trump? How can you be neutral about those two?

Well Im Irish for a start so what would I know about British values? Even if I knew what they were I wouldn't be following or rejecting them.

They have been listed now but it could have been tea drinking and queueing for all I know.

I am glad to be the first you have seen to ask the question genuinely, I guess?

Clearly you aren't cut out to be a teacher if you don't know how to keep your opinions to yourself in the classroom

And don't forget they're British values. We invented them of course.......

Why is it so bad for pupils to experience people with different views? I don’t think anything she said was bad, though I disagree with her views. And some schools certainly do push agendas, and I’m talking whole schools, not just individual teachers

Teachers are in a position of influence over pupils. It's something that is drummed into teachers to keep their opinions to themselves

This link explains more

Political impartiality in schools - GOV.UK

There is no blanket prohibition on teachers and staff expressing their own views on political issues that are being taught to pupils.

However, there is a risk that doing so could sometimes amount to promoting a partisan political view or compromise the balanced presentation of opposing views.

Teachers and staff are in a position of authority and will typically be respected and trusted by the pupils they teach, giving their personal opinions greater weight and credibility.

(But not in this case, I think)

As a general principle, they should avoid expressing their own personal political views to pupils unless they are confident this will not amount to promoting that view to pupils.

Where staff do share their personal political views, they should ensure that this is not presented as fact and note that there are opposing views which pupils may wish to consider.

School leaders and employers will need to judge whether it is necessary or helpful to have a school wide policy on teachers expressing personal opinions on political issues in the classroom, or whether this is best left to teachers’ own judgement on a case-by-case basis.

A large number of my daughter’s teachers wear Palestine pins. I had assumed teacher were like ambulance drivers and such and not meant to express political viewpoints at work but apparently not.

I was at school in the 60s and 70s with a different culture to now, where teachers could and did go off piste ( it was great) but I don't remember a single instance of them expressing their political or moral views.

Quite properly.

My Latin teacher used to go off on a tangent about his time as an RAF rear gunner in a Lancaster in WW2.

Couldn't do that nowadays

Whilst teachers should not try and influence students double standards are being applied in the way this teacher is being treated. Teachers can say with no fear that they think Reform is racist, make jokes about Nigel, criticise Israel, criticise China, advocate freedom of choice with regard to abortion - yet when the views stated are not following the agenda that is seen as more “woke” for want of a better term then there is an issue. Working in schools I have seen instances where it has been quite openly stated that certain view are not valid - result most teachers and those with those views keep quiet , that is of course the ideal BUT that applies to those with the opposing views as well. So in one way I thing the teacher did no more than many with the opposing views do - so my opinion is it’s double standards and therefore I think it’s a witch hunt.

Can I ask what leads you to that belief?

Thanks

Well naturally of course!

I don't share my views. I am a labour supporter and hate Reform but when a student asked me about them I suggested she research the policies of the political parties and make up her mind based on that. I said it was a good idea to listen to different political voices and I'm always very clear that I don't share my personal opinion because I want the students to make up their own minds.

Well he'd be at least 97 today, so you'd hope he wouldn't still be teaching 😂

Exactly.

This teacher should have kept her personal opinions on such divisive topics out of the classroom.

At which point is a good opportunity to point out that whilst you can't say what you think or how you vote you do believe in mutual respect and tolerance and you are against discrimination in all forms.

It seems this teacher was seen by a student at a Reform conference.
I can imagine it wouldn't have been too difficult to "get her going" off on one