NewsBiscuit

A Catholic secondary school in south London has been forced to ban the crucifixion of disruptive pupils after the local authority ruled that the practice may offend the religious sensitivities of some non-Christian families.

St Mary’s Sacred Heart School in Wandsworth has come under fire in the past for its extreme and old-fashioned Catholic ethos, which has previously seen pupils condemned to an eternity in hell for failing to reach a level 5C at the end of Key Stage 3. However it is the practice of crucifying its students that was high-lighted as ‘an area of some concern’ during a recent Ofsted inspection.

‘It’s fine for children who come from ultra-Christian families where this sort of thing might be normal’ said Ken Charlton from the Education Authority. ‘But since St Mary’s Sacred Heart was forced to admit a proportion of non-Christians, the use of crucifixion as a form of punishment might be seen to be religiously inappropriate for say Hindus or Muslim pupils.’

The fundamentalist faith school is now being encouraged to use detentions and fixed-term exclusions as a deterrent to pupils who break school rules or the Ten Commandments. The exclusions may be for up to two weeks (with the school providing work to be completed at home) rather than the previous arrangement whereby children were cast out into the wilderness for forty days. Neither will future Spanish oral tests be allowed to follow the ‘inquisition’ model.

Headmistress Sister Anne-Marie Callaghan was angry at the bureaucratic infringement of the school’s religious freedoms; ‘First they said that school-children couldn’t wear a crucifix, next they say we’re not allowed to nail kids to a cross and leave them out on the sports field. It’s just political correctness gone mad.’

However there is one consolation for the school. Following the publicity surrounding the case, St Mary’s has a number of extra enquiries from parents keen to educate their children in the ultra-Christian faith environment including applications from former education minister Ruth Kelly and the Blairs looking for somewhere to send young Leo.

Catch 23

Posted: Jan 15th, 2007 by NewsBiscuit