Sikh school no-meat policy would be infringement on children's freedom and rights

[Second Summer]

Parents have said they rejected places at a new Sikh school because their children would have felt "out of place" as they do not follow the faith.

Twenty children were overlooked for their first six preferred schools and instead allocated a place at Khalsa Secondary Academy in Slough.
[...]
She [(a mother to one of the children)] added the strict "no meat" policy would be an "infringement on his freedom and rights".

Read more: Parents' anger at Buckinghamshire Sikh academy allocation (BBC News, 23 April 2014 )
Related: Parents who rejected Sikh school places find alternatives (BBC News, 28 April 2014)

The Sikh academy had said they could opt out of the prayer, but would not be able to consume meat on the premises.

 

[beancounter]

A private institition has the right to do this, a public institution does not.

 

[Second Summer]

A private institition has the right to do this, a public institution does not.

Well, an academy is something in-between, if I understand correctly:

Academy schools are state funded schools in England which are directly funded by central government (specifically, the Department for Education) and independent of direct control by local government in England. Most are secondary schools, for pupils aged 11 to 16, but some cater for children from nursery age upwards, or for children aged 4 and upwards. All have a curriculum specialism within the English Specialist Schools Programme (SSP).[1] They are roughly equivalent to the charter schools in the USA.[citation needed]

Academies are self-governing and most are constituted as registered charities or operated by other educational charities, and may receive additional support from personal or corporate sponsors, either financially or in kind. They must meet the same National Curriculum core subject requirements as other state schools and are subject to inspection by Ofsted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_(English_school)

 

[Blobbenstein]

Well schools have rules like having to wear uniforms. I always felt that was taking away some of my freedom, when I was a kid, but looking back, I suppose it wasn't really a big deal..

Ignoring veg*nism, meat is just another food type, and it would be just the same as a school excluding other types of food, like chocolate, or custard, or mushrooms, so yes it would reduce the child's freedom, but in the same was as other rules do....

I would have felt aggrieved if foods I liked had been banned, too, when I was at school.

 

[Tom L.]

Sikhs aren't vegetarians, are they? I think their faith combines aspects of Hinduism and Islam but I don't know that much about it.

*goes off to google Sikhism*

Edited to add: OK. Sikhs aren't vegetarians, but they are forbidden to consume meat slaughtered by Jewish or Muslim ritual methods, and they have a tradition which specifies that, in an "open kitchen" or cafeteria setting, the food is usually vegetarian so that all may eat it.

 

[Dropkick]

I didn't read the articles before posting this so I don't know about the particulars of this case, but if things in the UK are like they are in the US (and my feelings from my daily reading of BBC articles say they are) it seems that everyone is always so aimed at how institutions and/or businesses are denying people's rights that they seem to be ignoring the rights of the people who set up the institutions to cater to their own belief system and those of a like belief system.
I'm sorry, but if I join or attend an organization that is run by a religious/cultural group I'm going to expect that I'll have to follow the rules of that group while I'm there. If I don't want to follow those rules I shouldn't have tried to join in the first place, and I dang sure shouldn't resort to the legal or political system to get them to change - those changes (if made) should be done internally by the members.

 

[Second Summer]

I'm sorry, but if I join or attend an organization that is run by a religious/cultural group I'm going to expect that I'll have to follow the rules of that group while I'm there. If I don't want to follow those rules I shouldn't have tried to join in the first place, and I dang sure shouldn't resort to the legal or political system to get them to change - those changes (if made) should be done internally by the members.

Yes, but in this case with the Sikh school, the parents actually didn't want their children to go there in the first place. They had wanted different schools, but because those schools were full, the local council had decided the children had to go to the government-funded, privately run Sikh school instead.

I obviously think vegetarian food would be better for the children than dead animals, and I find it disturbing to think that people in this day and age still think they have a right to feed on the flesh of innocent animals. That aside, I also find it troubling that the government is funding faith schools, thereby effectively encouraging the "parallel societies" version of multiculturalism. I think I would prefer something more like the "melting pot" approach, where people of different faiths and backgrounds go to the same schools and actually get to know each other, and hopefully at least share some core values.

 

[Blobbenstein]

did public funding of faith schools come about by Fundamental American Christians lobbying in the UK?

I think I read that years ago.....
It's a terrible idea.

 

[Clueless Git]

Religious education is simply too close to being an oxymoron for me.