In light of our upcoming legal seminar on free speech and faith, we look at one ordinary Christian mother’s unprecedented six-year journey through the UK legal system – and all the obstacles put in her way to receiving justice and protecting Christian freedom.
Worrying content taught in school
In October 2018, Kristie’s 8-year-old son brought home storybooks as part of a ‘No Outsiders in Our School’ program.
Researching online, Kristie discovered the books were very controversial and encouraged beliefs in gender fluidity and sexualised children from a young age.
She decided to visit her son’s Church of England primary school in Fairford, Gloucestershire to see what other books the school was using.
She was alarmed to discover books such as ‘My Princess Boy’ and ‘Red Crayon’, which promoted extreme gender identity themes to children as young as five.
Parents were invited in to the school to view the books if they wanted to, but Kristie was concerned that many parents were not aware of what their children were about to start learning.
She politely told the school she wanted her son to be withdrawn from these lessons.
She then discovered that there was a forthcoming government consultation about making ‘relationships and sex education’ compulsory in UK schools.
As a Christian, Kristie believes it is morally necessary to speak out in defence of Biblical truth when false and harmful doctrines are being promoted, especially to children.
After doing further research, on her personal Facebook page, under her maiden name, which had no links to her employer, Kristie made the following two posts.
The first post encouraged friends and family to sign a petition challenging the government’s plans to introduce Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) to children in primary schools. The petition was not created by Mrs Higgs.
The post flagged that a government consultation on plans to make RSE mandatory for children as young as four was coming to a close. It asked its readers to sign a nationwide petition calling on the government to uphold the rights of parents to have children educated in line with their religious beliefs.
A similar petition was subsequently signed by over 115,000 people and was debated in Parliament.
In the second post, Mrs Higgs shared an article from Judybeth.com on the rise of transgender ideology in children’s books in American schools and added her own comment: “This is happening in our primary schools now.” The consequences of sending them would be devastating.
Sacked, accused and compared to a ‘pro-Nazi right-wing extremist’
One anonymous complaint about Kristie’s posts was quickly made to the headteacher of Farmor’s Secondary School, Matthew Evans, where she had worked as a pastoral administrator without complaint for seven years.
The email said: “…a member of your staff who works directly with children has been posting homophobic and prejudiced views against the lgbt community on Facebook … [and] that this individual may exert influence over the vulnerable pupils that may end up in isolation for whatever reason. I find these views offensive and I am sure that when you look into it, you will understand my concern…”
Mr Evans responded to the complainant saying it would be helpful to forward screenshots of “any similarly offensive posts”. The complainant emailed back, attaching screenshots of other Facebook posts made by the claimant, further explaining:
“I’m aware that not everyone has liberal views like myself but I do feel that people working directly with children should refrain from posting this type of view on social media. I know of several children at Farmor’s who might fit into the category of person your staff member seems to find so obnoxious, friends of my children even.…”
Kristie was suspended and, shaking and tearful, was ordered to leave the school premises.
An investigation report followed which recommended she be dismissed for gross misconduct because:
“By choosing to make the posts and stating that she believes in God’s Law and not Man’s Law, I believe that, on the balance of probability, this means that she holds views that are discriminatory against groups of people with protected characteristics.”
The report added that: “On the balance of probability this would be interpreted that she holds illegal discriminatory views that are not in line with the Equality Act 2010 and therefore has breached the Conduct Policy”.
Sacked for gross misconduct, Kristie was accused of ‘illegal discrimination’, ‘serious inappropriate use of social media’, and ‘online comments that could bring the school into disrepute and damage the reputation of the school.’
No evidence has ever been found that her posts brought the school into disrepute.
Subjected to a six-hour interrogation during a disciplinary hearing, Kristie’s posts, and the Christian beliefs that had shaped them, were described as akin to that of a ‘pro-Nazi right-wing extremist.’
After launching legal action, an Employment Tribunal ruling in October 2020, however, found against Kristie.
The ruling tenuously judged that the school had been right to dismiss her, as someone reading her posts could have perceived and concluded that she was ‘transphobic’ and ‘homophobic.’
Lawyers appealed this ruling, arguing that it ‘erred in law’, was ‘perverse’ and that: “no reasonable and informed person, having read the [Mrs Higgs’] post, could conclude anything other than the posts were a critique of a certain approach to education, whether held by members of the LGBT community or non-LGBT secular liberals.”
Unprecedented recusals of panel members
After her appeal was granted, a series of extraordinary, almost unheard of events, began to unfold in the court room.
In July 2022, her appeal hearing was postponed after it was discovered that a trans activist, Edward Lord, would sit as a lay member on the presiding panel.
It transpired that Lord, associated with Mermaids and Stonewall, had made a series of public statements relating to key issues in Kristie’s case, including the extent to which individuals should be restricted from making comments or statements regarding LGBT ideology, especially transgenderism.
Mr Lord was forced to recuse himself and a new hearing had to be scheduled.
Lightning struck twice in March 2023, when in the lead up to the rescheduled appeal hearing, it was discovered that Andrew Morris, the former Assistant General Secretary of National Education Union (NEU), would be presiding as a lay member.
Under Mr Morris’ watch the NEU consistently took a strong position in favour of making both relationship and sex education mandatory in primary schools.
The NEU at this time was also a national leader in encouraging teaching children at primary schools about same-sex relationships and transgenderism.
Morris was forced to recuse himself and questions raised as to whether it was possible for Kristie to get a fair trial.
It is important to emphasise that one recusal in these circumstances is extremely rare, two recusals is unheard of.
In an unprecedented scenario, President of the Employment Appeals Tribunal, Justice Jennifer Eady was forced to hear the case ‘judge alone.’ She found that the original ruling which had upheld Kristie’s sacking was wrong.
But instead of giving Kristie justice, which was in her power to do, she ordered that the case should be sent back to the beginning of the legal process to be heard again.
Kristie’s lawyers again successfully appealed this decision, this time to the Court of Appeal.
Interest in Kristie’s case began to build momentum, with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Free Speech Union, Sex Matters and the Association of Christian Teachers intervening in the case in support of her.
The Church of England’s Archbishops’ Council intervened in the case and at first did not support Kristie. In 2023, a media agency claimed that senior members of the Church of England had met with the judiciary to discuss Kristie’s and other Christian Legal Centre cases. After being questioned on this development, the Church of England denied that any such meetings had taken place.
Standing with Kristie for Christian speech
With the help of her legal team, Kristie overcame all of these challenges and her case was heard at the Court of Appeal in October 2024. Christian Legal Centre clients, who had had similar experiences and legal cases, came out to support her at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Then after four months of deliberation and a six-year legal battle, the Court of Appeal gave its ground-breaking ruling in February 2025.
It reversed the ruling which defended her dismissal and confirmed that the Equality Act protects traditional Christian beliefs on social issues, such as opposition to the ideas of transgenderism and ‘gender-fluidity’ and opposition to same-sex marriage.
The judgment re-shapes the law on freedom of religion in the workplace and for the first time in employment law, the judgment has effectively established a legal presumption that any dismissal for an expression or manifestation of Christian faith is illegal.
It explained that the burden is on the employer to prove in the Employment Tribunal that any such dismissal can be objectively justified (not just that they believed it was justified) and was prescribed by law, proportionate and otherwise necessary in a democratic society to address a pressing social need.
The Court of Appeal has also ruled that such a dismissal would only be lawful if it was objectively justified as prescribed by law and necessary in a democratic society.
Lord Justice Underhill said that: “Neither the language of the posts nor the risk of reputational damage were capable of justifying [Kristie’s] dismissal in circumstances where she had not said anything of the kind at work or displayed any discriminatory attitudes in her treatment of pupils.”
Lady Justice Falk said at the end of the ruling that if the decision to uphold Kristie’s dismissal had gone unchecked: “it would risk a judicially-endorsed silencing of the legitimate expression of views due to a concern about the conclusions that some might choose to draw from what is said.”
Read the full judgment.
Since Kristie made those posts in 2018, she has been vindicated on the concerns she raised.
Last year the government launched an urgent review into the teaching of extreme sex education in UK schools.
Education ministers have also warned in draft guidance that gender identity is “highly contested” and that teaching the issue could have “damaging implications.”
If asked, school staff should teach the “biological facts” about sex, the government said.
Join our next legal seminar
If you would like to learn more about Kristie’s case, join us on Tuesday 6 May as we delve into where the law now stands in light of the Kristie Higgs’ Court of Appeal judgment. We will examine the ruling’s implications for freedom to express Christian faith freely and its intersection and impact within employment and professional settings.
While these events are primarily aimed at legal professionals, they are open to all.
You can also support the work of the Christian Legal Centre here as they continue to protect Christian freedom in the UK.
