Wigton school head defends atheists carol service decision
Last updated at 12:28, Thursday, 24 December 2009
The headteacher of Wigton’s Nelson Thomlinson school has defended a decision to uphold “traditional values”.
Janet Downes spoke out after a number of students tried to duck out of the school’s annual carol service at St Mary’s Church last week.
A group of seven atheist lower and upper sixth formers had tried to avoid the service on religious grounds.
They had argued that their own strong beliefs came into conflict with the church’s, which meant they should be allowed to stay away.
Mrs Downes thought otherwise and called their parents. She said: “Nelson Thomlinson is a traditional school with traditional values and celebrating Christmas with a carol service is one of those long standing traditions.
“A letter was placed on the head of sixth form’s desk, signed by seven students claiming that they were atheist and stating that they didn’t want to go to the service. We always respect parental wishes and as this request had not come from parents, our deputy head started to contact the parents. We were able to make contact with the parents of five students. Four of those parents were surprised and advised us that their son/daughter should go to the carol service. One confirmed that they didn’t want their son/daughter to go and we couldn’t make contact with the other two.
“As a result four students went to the carol service and the other three remained in school. We didn’t make anyone do anything against their wishes.”
Jamie Leather, 17, is one of the students who wanted to give the service a miss.
They had requested permission to spend the time doing schoolwork instead.
Jamie said: “We were not being rude, we were simply asking that we didn’t want to take part and could we spend the two hours catching up on coursework. But it was responded to with criticism and we all got called in [to see the head] and the school called our parents saying we were being disrespectful so we were forced to go. It just discriminatory and like we are not really valued.”
Jamie says he and his friends feel their views are being ignored because they are not part of a conventional religion. He added: “A lot of them don’t follow known religions but they don’t want to sit through a two-hour Christian service. We are non-believers who are being forced to go.
“Everyone feels undervalued and like their opinions are not worth anything, everyone’s really annoyed about it.”
First published at 07:09, Thursday, 24 December 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk
These kids need to loose the arrogance. Would they boycot a brother or sisters church wedding or stage a protest over a nephews christening because they hold different views. The modern church is a get believer in a sense of community which as a non believer I would have to agree with. I go to the odd carol service for the vibe not because I'm a believer but I am always welcome and I respect the fact that others have their views and the fact that I may learn something. The kids are entitled to their views but it seems they lack the maturity to see the bigger picture. They go to school to learn - loose the arrogance and petulance and go and learn.
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Catsar Setofire, you've missed the point completey. They did want to learn, going to a carol service isn't educational in any sense, other than learning how silly the nativity story is once you're older than 8.
They actually offered to do school work instead.This is all about forcing people to do religious things they don't believe in - going to a wedding or christening is optional, no one is forcing them. That's the difference.Posted by Nathan on 23 January 2010 at 12:23