A primary school teacher in London was barred from working with children after telling a Muslim student that "Britain is still a Christian state," The Telegraph has disclosed. The instructor was referred to his local child protection board over the comments, and a senior detective from the Metropolitan Police's child abuse investigation team became involved in the case.
The incident has intensified concerns among free-speech advocates that laws designed to protect children from harm are being used to suppress conservative viewpoints. The Telegraph revealed earlier this week that Jamie Michael, a former Royal Marine, was barred from working with children after posting a Facebook video protesting against illegal immigration.
In the latest case, the unnamed teacher was suspended and ultimately dismissed following an incident in which he allegedly reprimanded students for washing their feet in the boys' bathroom sinks. Police were called to investigate a potential hate crime.
According to the student who filed the complaint, the teacher told them the school was non-religious but noted that an Islamic school existed a mile away if they preferred to attend it. He also stated that "Britain is still a Christian state" and pointed out that the King serves as head of the Church of England.
Following the feet-washing incident, the teacher attempted to explain to his year six class the importance of British values, including tolerance. He reportedly reminded the children that Islam remained a minority religion in the UK.
In his legal claim against the local authority, the teacher's lawyers emphasized that the school was non-faith and that prayers had been informally prohibited in the playground – and by extension, washing feet in the sinks – with such activities confined to a designated prayer room.
The school suspended the teacher in March 2024 and subsequently terminated his employment. A month later, in April 2024, he was informed he was being referred to the safeguarding board and to the Metropolitan Police. The police inquiry was later dropped.
Safeguarding boards, established in 2004 following the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham by school caretaker Ian Huntley, are designed to protect children from dangers posed by adults who work with them.
The teacher, who is now suing the local authority with support from the Free Speech Union, was banned from working with children after the safeguarding officer concluded he had made hurtful comments about Islam and that the child had suffered emotional harm. The teacher succeeded in appealing the ban and is now working part-time at another school outside London.
Lord Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said Monday that the teacher "lost his job and almost ended up being barred from the profession for life just because he pointed out to a class of Muslim schoolchildren that the national religion of England is Anglicanism."
"Things have reached a pretty pass in this country if a teacher can be branded a safeguarding risk because he says something that's incontestably true," Lord Young added. "If he'd claimed that Islam is the official religion of England, even though that's not true, I doubt he would have got into any trouble."
Three children filed written complaints against the teacher. Nine people examined the complaints, including the local safeguarding officer, a detective sergeant from the child abuse investigation team, two social workers, an HR adviser, and the school's headteacher. The children claimed they were upset and frightened by the teacher's remarks and that he had shouted at them.
The teacher was dismissed in February after nearly three years at the school. He argued that his summary dismissal for gross misconduct was unfair and that a teaching assistant present during the lecture about Britain being a Christian state had raised no concerns.
The Free Speech Union has compiled a dossier of more than a dozen cases in which it claims adults working with children were referred to child safeguarding boards for expressing conservative views.
The Telegraph disclosed Monday that Jamie Michael, who served with the Royal Marines during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, had been banned as a youth football coach in the Rhondda Valley for an online post following the murders of three children in Southport in 2024.
Michael, 47, was charged with inciting racial hatred but cleared by a jury after just 17 minutes. Following his acquittal, the local safeguarding board banned him from working with children. He is suing the board and the Football Association of Wales for £25,000 ($31,500) in damages.
