Catholic elementary school has leading UK gay lobby group educate students on “homophobic bullying”
LONDON, May 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic elementary school in Wimbledon is under criticism for inviting Stonewall, the UK’s most powerful homosexual lobbying group, to train its teachers how to deal with “homophobic bullying.”
Sarah Crouch, headmaster of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, told the Evening Standard, “We want to give our staff the tools to know what to do should an incident of homophobic bullying occur...It is important that children know it is not OK to use the word gay in a derogatory way.”
She said the school brought Stonewall in to comply with the requirements of the government’s school overseers, Ofsted. Crouch praised Stonewall for tailoring its programme to a Catholic audience, without mentioning “same sex relationships or gay marriage.”
For having involved the foremost promoter of “gay marriage” in the country in its teacher training, the school was made a “Primary School Champion” of “gay equality.”
Wes Streeting of Stonewall told Pink News, “Our work with St. Mary’s is part of an ongoing program to help staff challenge homophobia, which helps meet Ofsted guidelines and the Catholic Education Service’s advice that Catholic schools tackle homophobic bullying.”
But Antonia Tully, national coordinator of the Safe at School campaign that opposes the use of materials that promote homosexuality in schools, said, “Many parents will be very concerned that a gay rights organization is considered to be an appropriate source of advice on how to deal with children using inappropriate language in the playground.”
“If a primary school takes on Stonewall’s agenda, young children will be exposed to homosexual issues, which they are too young to understand properly,” she said. “Parents expect a school to provide an education, not subject their children to gay propaganda.”
John Smeaton, the director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children that is helping to coordinate a national campaign against the government’s same-sex “marriage” bill, said he hoped that the Catholic archdiocese of Southwark that oversees the school, “will issue a prompt statement denying that the archdiocese approves of Stonewall's presence in any of its schools and assuring parents that measures will be taken to block Stonewall and its material.”
“Sadly, groups inimical to pro-life and pro-family Catholic principles have been welcomed into Catholic schools in England and Wales for many years, courtesy of the Catholic authorities,” Smeaton added.
He cited the presence of the “sex-education” program Connexions that “facilitates secret abortions on schoolgirls without parental knowledge or consent” that have been welcomed into Catholic schools courtesy of the Catholic Education Service.
