Prayer ban at Katharine Birbalsingh’s school is lawful, High Court rules .

I hope whichever lefty lawyer has been acting for her isn’t frantically looking for grounds to appeal. They’re not known for accepting defeat.

Crossed posting Urms I just updated the original post.

From The Telegraph just now:

“ The High Court has ruled a prayer ban at Katharine Birbalsingh’s school is lawful.

Ms Birbalsingh, who founded Michaela Community School, said she introduced the prayer ban in March last year “against a backdrop of events including violence, intimidation and appalling racial harassment of our teachers”.

A Muslim pupil, who cannot be named, claimed the prayer policy was discriminatory and “uniquely” affects her faith.

Michaela school, in Brent, north-west London, was ranked top in the country last year for “Progress 8”, a measure of how much a secondary school has helped pupils improve since primary school.

Its strict rules include silence in corridors, pupils ending every interaction with teachers with “sir” or “miss”, and a tracking system whereby pupils “must pay constant attention” during lessons.

High Court rules ban lawful
In an 83-page judgment dismissing the student’s case, Mr Justice Linden said: “It seems to me that this is a case ... where the claimant at the very least impliedly accepted, when she enrolled at the school, that she would be subject to restrictions on her ability to manifest her religion.

“She knew that the school is secular and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there because it was known to be strict.

“She herself says that, long before the prayer ritual policy was introduced, she and her friends believed that prayer was not permitted at school and she therefore made up for missed prayers when she got home.”

Sorry didn’t have specs on, great news

Do tell please

Good. At what cost to the taxpayer though?