A teacher in the UK is suing her former school after she was fired for telling students she is pro-life, in a case taken up by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Anita Meston, 63, a Christian woman who has been teaching for nearly three decades, was hired by Biddick Academy in 2024. While teaching a Grade 8 history lesson to 12- to 13-year-olds, the topic was brought up by students. Premier Christian News explains:
During a year 8 history lesson, which focused on the bombing of Dresden in World War II, she asked whether similar moral questions surrounded the current conflict in Palestine.
When asked by a pupil, Meston said that she was “pro-Israel” but lamented the deaths of innocent people in Gaza.Later in the lesson, a different student asked if she was “pro-abortion”, to which she responded that she was “pro-life”.
When asked to elaborate on her position, Meston explained that she held this view because she is a Christian and that she knew women who had had abortions and regretted the decision. A student replied that she knew women who had had abortions and not regretted them, to which Meston responded, “fair enough”.
The next day, she was called into a meeting with the school principal, who told her that a complaint had been made against her.
When she explained that she only shared her views in response to a direct question and then quickly redirected the discussion, she was told that she was being terminated for “sharing personal opinions on political issues with pupils” on the grounds that it would cause them “harm or distress.”
Meston said in a statement:
“I am profoundly shocked by Biddick Academy’s decision to dismiss me for my faith-based pro-life beliefs and other mainstream personal and political views.I do not believe it is a teacher’s role to impose beliefs unrelated to the lesson in the classroom. I merely acknowledged my students’ questions and provided truthful answers before redirecting them back to the lesson at hand.
If our national education system continues to claim to foster inclusion and tolerance, this must include tolerance of perspectives with which others disagree.
In a free and just society, teachers should not be fired for honestly expressing their deeply held beliefs in response to questions in the classroom. What happened to me is nothing short of censorship, and this precedent cannot be allowed to stand.”
She is being represented by ADF, and has a preliminary hearing scheduled on October 16, 2026 with the Employment Tribunal.
