June 2019

Judgment of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division is reported at [2019] Education Law Reports 373, and on BAILII.

Clients: Three named protestors.

I represented three protestors, all of the Muslim faith, who disagreed with Anderton Park Primary School’s stance on teaching children matters relating to sexual behaviour, sexuality and gender.

The Council had obtained interim injunctions on without notice applications to restrain protests taking place outside the school. This hearing was for the Council’s application for those injunctions to be continued.

The judge (Mr Justice Warby) concluded that the Council had failed to comply with its procedural responsibilities, including a failure to identify the relevance of the Human Rights Act 1998 s.12(3) and therefore discharged the without notice injunctions.

However, notwithstanding those deficiencies, fresh, more limited, interim injunctions were imposed to protect against harassment and other antisocial behaviour, while permitting legitimate expression of lawful dissent against the school’s policies.

Just a few examples of where the case was featured:

• BBC News [2019]

• The Guardian [2019]

• Birmingham Mail [2019]

• The Express & Star [2019]