Revd Randall’s Employment Tribunal Continues
The Employment Tribunal case for the Revd Dr Bernard Randall continues. It is now thought likely to end on 23 September.
The hearing was not sidelined by the unexpected death of Her Majesty The Queen.
The Revd Dr Randall’s testimony has completed and now the school is being examined.
Christian Concern which is providing legal assistance to Dr Randall released a nine point statement as to how the situation came into being. According to Mr Tim Allen from Christian Concern the issues are:
1. Inviting Educate and Celebrate in the first place; like Stonewall and Mermaids it peddles false understandings of gender, sexuality and the law, and was clearly unfit for a Christian school.
2. After agreeing that the training was inappropriate in certain ways, they excluded Dr Randall from discussions on how to implement Educate and Celebrate’s recommendations.
3. After saying that they “would not simply implement the entire Educate and Celebrate programme as presented,” they u-turned, choosing to implement everything and push for the charity’s gold award.
4. They gave undue credence to complaints about a sermon by regarding them a safeguarding matter.
5. They did not assess the factual basis for the complaints made against Dr Randall; they contained factual errors about what he had said.
6. They referred Dr Randall to the government counter terrorism unit, Prevent.
7. Despite knowing little about Christianity, they attempted to correct him on doctrine and church teaching.
8. They initially dismissed him for gross misconduct – later appealed by him successfully.
9. Through furlough and redundancy proceedings they downplayed the chaplain’s role and what goes into it.
