High Court bans anti-LGBT teaching protests outside Anderton Primary School in Birmingham

Jason Collie|Tim Baker26 November 2019

Protests against LGBT equality teaching at a Birmingham primary school have been permanently banned by a High Court judge.

The ban for protests outside Anderton Park Primary School, handed down at Birmingham Civil Justice Centre on Tuesday, had been opposed by protesters, along with the interim ban first granted at the same court in the summer.

A five-day hearing held last month saw Birmingham City Council seek to make the order permanent after the school witnessed weeks of noisy demonstrations.

Mr Justice Warby QC, handing down the permanent injunction at the High Court in Birmingham, said the protests had “a very significant adverse impact on the pupils, teachers and local residents”.

Recounting claims made by speakers at the protests, including one that the school had a “paedophile agenda” and that staff were “teaching children how to masturbate”, the judge said “None of this is true.

“None of the defendants have suggested it was true and the council has proved it is not true.”

There protests have been permanently banned following the High Court order
PA

Imposing the injunction, he said: “The court finds on the balance of probabilities the defendants bear responsibility for the most extreme manifestations (of the protest).”

Birmingham City Council was granted an order temporarily banning protesters from outside the school's gates in June, over safety fears about repeated large-scale demonstrations, often involving people with no direct connection to the school.

The injunction was made against three individuals - the protest's main organisers Shakeel Afsar and Amir Ahmed, and parent Rosina Afsar, as well as "persons unknown".

A Christian campaigner called John Allman from Okehampton, Devon, had also opposed the legal bid, claiming it limited public protest.

Headteacher Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson had previously described the demonstrations as "awful", "toxic and nasty", and has spoken of receiving threats as a result of the gatherings.

Mr Asfar, who does not have children at the school, claimed the protests were peaceful, but megaphones and sound-boosting PA systems were used.

In a bid to try and settle the disputes, Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson and Mr Afsar had a meeting in her office.

The headteacher told the judge: "He slammed his hand on my desk. He used the word 'demand'... It was volatile, it was aggressive.

"I had never had a meeting like that before in 26 years of teaching.

"He set up a WhatsApp group that afternoon ... trying to whip up a frenzy."

The legal prohibition does not include an earlier temporary ban on use of social media to abuse teaching staff, the judge added.

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