A Christian teacher is bringing a discrimination claim against a secondary school in Sunderland, alleging that she was dismissed after answering pupils’ questions about her pro-life beliefs and other personal views in class.
Anita Meston, 63, is taking legal action against Biddick Academy in Washington, with support from legal advocacy organisation Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). A preliminary Employment Tribunal hearing is scheduled for 16 October.
Meston had worked full-time as a supply teacher at the school for about six months, and her contract had been renewed the week before her dismissal, ADF said.
The organisation said the classroom discussion took place in March 2025, when Meston was covering a Year 8 history lesson about the proportionality of the Allied bombing of Dresden in 1945.
According to ADF, Meston asked whether the current Israel-Palestine conflict raised similar moral questions. A pupil then asked whether she supported Israel. She said she did, while expressing concern for the plight of innocent people in Gaza.
Later in the lesson, ADF said another pupil asked whether she was “pro-abortion”, to which Meston replied that she was “pro-life”. When asked to explain her position, she referred to her Christian faith and said she knew women who regretted having abortions. After a pupil said she knew women who did not regret their abortions, Meston responded, “Fair enough," according to ADF.
The organisation said Meston was called to a meeting with the headteacher the following day and told that a complaint had been made. She was also informed by the headteacher that she was not permitted to give her personal views in the classroom and that her contract would be terminated.
Speaking ahead of this week's preliminary hearing, Meston said, “I am profoundly shocked by Biddick Academy’s decision to dismiss me for my faith-based pro-life beliefs and other mainstream personal and political views.
“I do not believe it is a teacher’s role to impose beliefs unrelated to the lesson in the classroom. I merely acknowledged my students’ questions and provided truthful answers before redirecting them back to the lesson at hand.”
Meston, who has been teaching for 28 years, joined the school in October 2024. She mainly taught French, covered other subjects, and served as a Year 10 form tutor, ADF said.
The organisation said pupils had also asked her about Nigel Farage and Donald Trump in other lessons. She briefly described them as popular politicians before returning to the lesson, according to ADF. She also reportedly confirmed that she planned to attend a Reform UK conference after a pupil asked about it.
Meston maintains that she did not impose her views on pupils.
“If our national education system continues to claim to foster inclusion and tolerance, this must include tolerance of perspectives with which others disagree,” she said.
The North East Learning Trust, which operates Biddick Academy, said in response to the claims: "While we are not able to comment on this individual case, we have a clear staff code of conduct, which is consistently applied to protect the safety and wellbeing of our children at all times.”
Jeremiah Igunnubole, a barrister and legal counsel at ADF, said, “The purpose of education is to form young people who can engage with the world around them, and this inevitably includes encountering people with different perspectives. If teachers are dismissed solely for views that students or staff disagree with, the next generation will learn that it is acceptable to censor opinions they dislike. This does not bode well for the future of fundamental freedoms in our society.
“Schools are places of learning, and teachers should be able to accompany students as they grapple with moral and social issues, including by offering truthful answers to their questions. A teacher-student relationship that is characterised by fear and self-censorship is antithetical to learning.
“It is unacceptable that expressing pro-life and other views in response to a question can result in a person being terminated. The law protects all employees from discriminatory treatment.
"We are supporting Anita to ensure her rights as a Christian in the workplace are upheld and to reaffirm the principle that employers cannot fire staff merely because they disagree with their Christian beliefs."
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, a pro-life campaigner who is being prosecuted for praying silently in an abortion clinic buffer zone, has expressed her support for Meston.
"If stating your views when they've been expressly asked for is causing harm or distress then we need to rethink what message we are teaching young people? That it's offensive to disagree with people? That hearing views contrary to your own is damaging?" she said on X.
