A teacher in Scotland has said she was summarily dismissed after telling students that she was personally against abortion.
Sarah Morse, a 66-year-old American, was teaching history to students aged 14 to 15 at Arbroath High School when the incident occurred.
She says that during the class students asked her about life in the US, and about her views on issues such as transgenderism, abortion and Donald Trump.
Morse, speaking to The Sunday Times, said she believed the students were simply curious. However with hindsight she suspects they may have been deliberately trying to entice her into saying something controversial.
When asked about abortion, Morse said, “I am a faithful Roman Catholic and I am against it.”
She went on to say, again in response to student questions, that she believed this even in cases of rape, but recognised that others would disagree and that it would be reasonable not to agree with her stance.
Morse insists that she made no attempt to convert the students to her own viewpoint, but that she was simply giving honest answers to their questions.
Before the day was out Morse says she was summoned to a meeting with a senior member of staff and was “summarily dismissed” for talking “about religion and abortion”.
“I was not offered any sort of right of reply, asked for my account of what happened or how my legally protected beliefs were raised in the context of a history class and the head teacher wouldn’t even see me," she alleged.
Morse has taken the school to an employment tribunal, alleging discrimination.
A spokesperson for Angus Council, which runs the school, said, "This matter is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings and, therefore, it would be inappropriate for us to comment."
Morse said she will never teach in Scotland again, describing the experience as an “absolute nightmare”.
“To be ‘cancelled’ and lose my livelihood because of my religious identity is a terrifying precedent for the teaching profession in Scotland," she said.
She added, “I have never felt discriminated against in Canada, in England. It was not a problem. But here I got burnt.”
Morse’s case is being supported by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).
Michael Robinson, Executive Director of SPUC, told The Telegraph, “The dismissal of a teacher for respectfully answering a student’s question truthfully according to her conscience is a grave matter.
“Government guidelines on political impartiality in the classroom do not prohibit the mention of a teacher’s legally protected beliefs, provided there is no attempt to persuade.”
