School being prejudice ?

ste1200

Hi, not sure if this is the correct category..


A friend has a daughter who goes to a Catholic school and the bus company have put the daily cost of the bus up from £1.20/day to £1.47/day. The school said they will subsidise the increase but only if the child is a practicing Catholic, ie goes to church every Sunday etc.


Is this allowed ? It seems a bit prejudiced I think. There are no other requirements to being allowed to go to the school, so any religion is allowed to join the school.

tomtontom

It depends on how they phrase the offer/ the source of the funding. If it is coming from school funds, it would appear discriminatory to exclude people based on faith. If the church is offering the subsidy, they may be selective as to whom they offer it to.

Kayalana99

tomtontom wrote: »

It depends on how they phrase the offer/ the source of the funding. If it is coming from school funds, it would appear discriminatory to exclude people based on faith. If the church is offering the subsidy, they may be selective as to whom they offer it to.

They did this at my school to - I would think if they couldn't do it they wouldn't of but hey ho get legal advice if you want.

Their was even talk of getting me christened just to save money. :cool:

& their was no 'how they offered it / trying to hide it in a certain way' they basicly said its our choice to go to the school and its their rules or the high way.

reehsetin

There have been a few high profile instances where discounted rates for travel or parking relating to different faiths have been challenged, the National Secular Society are great with this and they've challenged a few councils etc arguing it should be the same for all - this may be worth a read - http://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/faith-schools-school-transport-briefing-paper.pdf

System

You need to find out the source of the funds for the subsidy. If it is coming from the diocese then they can put conditions on its use.

brendon

Are these Christians not supposed to "love thy neighbour" or something?

Valli

ste1200 wrote: »

There are no other requirements to being allowed to go to the school, so any religion is allowed to join the school.

I think you may find they are quite selective about who they take - non-catholics may have to prove allegiance to another religion (ie regular church attendance). Catholic school by me won't have non-believers - so my kids pass it to go to their school.

brendon wrote: »

Are these Christians not supposed to "love thy neighbour" or something?

Well you'd think so. Some of them think they belong to an exclusive club, though.

Voyager2002

brendon wrote: »

Are these Christians not supposed to "love thy neighbour" or something?

Well, people who go to my church look after each other in the same sort of way as members of a family. Most people are willing to make sacrifices for family members that they would not make for total strangers... So if a church (or any group of people) decides to raise money to help out their members but not other people in a similar situation, that is fair enough. Of course, if the school is using its own money to help with bus fairs then the help should be for everyone.

paddyrg

The true believers will be putting more that 27p/day in the collection plate anyway, just see it as money going around.