An employment tribunal in the UK is currently hearing a case from a teaching assistant who worked for a school for four years. The case revolves around the teaching assistant’s refusal to listen to a seven year old read Harry Potter. The book belonged to the girl and not the school. The teaching assistance was disciplined by her employers after she told the girl ‘I don’t do witchcraft in any form’ and said she would be cursed by hearing the JK Rowling Novel’.
The assistant resigned on grounds of religious discrimination.
So should the teaching assistant be compensated? Is this religious discrimination? Alternatively - are we just humouring a crank?
What if the book was the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe , Macbeth, or Lord of the Rings which contains wizards? Should Christians be refusing to read these too? What about Sabrina?
Harry Potter Tribunal
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Of course this is not discrimination.
Post #11The teaching assistant should get nothing. It is not witchcraft to listen to this harmless fantasy. I wonder if the teacher would refuse to listen to The Book of Mormon, Koran, the Sikh book, etc. The only literature that would be violation of religious beliefs would be pornography and maybe something written to attack a religion.
