{"id":3361,"date":"2013-09-16T06:25:58","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T06:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2013-09-15T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2013-09-15T09:29:44","slug":"primary-school-heads-removed-over-religious-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/2013\/09\/16\/primary-school-heads-removed-over-religious-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary school heads removed over religious row"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is good that appropriate action has been taken over this, bad that US style evangelistic churches and movements are springing up and gaining traction in the UK. Sheesh. From the BBC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Senior teachers at a South Lanarkshire school have been removed following a parent outcry over the involvement of a US-based religious group.<\/p>\n

Some parents at Kirktonholme Primary in East Kilbride have labelled the Church of Christ extremist.<\/p>\n

South Lanarkshire Council has now redeployed the two officials who shared the head teacher post.<\/p>\n

The authority also said it had launched “a full investigation into management practices at the school”.<\/p>\n

Controversy over the Church of Christ’s involvement with Kirktonholme Primary was highlighted in national newspaper articles.<\/p>\n

Some parents were reported to have been outraged that their children were given books at an assembly questioning evolution and highlighting the church’s own religious viewpoints.<\/p>\n

The authority held a meeting with concerned parents on Tuesday, after which the decision was taken to redeploy Sandra McKenzie and Liz Mockus, the school’s two head teachers.<\/p>\n

In a statement, South Lanarkshire’s education director Jim Gilhooly said: “As indicated to parents, a full investigation into the management practices within the school has been instigated.<\/p>\n

“In order to assist with this, the current head teachers have been moved from the school and redeployed to other duties within education resources, with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

“A temporary senior management team has been put in place.<\/p>\n

“The council will continue to work with the parents to ensure that Kirktonholme Primary School now moves forward with educating and caring for the community’s children.”<\/p>\n

Mr Gilhooly confirmed the changes at the school in a letter to parents on Thursday.<\/p>\n

He told them that West Mains Church of Christ would no longer be given access to Kirktonholme or any other local schools.<\/p>\n

The education director said the investigation would look at security at the school and the role of the parent council and school chaplaincy service.<\/p>\n

In his letter to parents, Mr Gilhooly concluded: “In my discussions with the parent council, and during the larger parent meeting, it was clear that everyone was keen to see the school move on from the current situation.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully these initial actions help to achieve this and I want to assure you that the safety and education of your children are paramount in all of our minds.<\/p>\n

“Finally, please also be assured that I will continue to inform you of decisions relating to your school.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is good that appropriate action has been taken over this, bad that US style evangelistic churches and movements are springing up and gaining traction in the UK. Sheesh. From the BBC:<\/p>\n

Senior teachers at a South Lanarkshire school have been removed following a parent outcry over the involvement of a US-based religious group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,362],"tags":[957,956,638],"class_list":["post-3361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-religion-and-society","tag-church-of-christ","tag-eductation","tag-secularism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}