TA loses religious discrimination case over Harry Potter

A teaching assistant who said she was a victim of religious discrimination has lost her unfair dismissal case.

Sariya Allan, a Pentecostal Christian, said she was forced to resign after she refused to listen to a child reading Harry Potter.

When a seven year old pupil at Durand primary school in Stockwell south London chose a Harry Potter book to read aloud to her, Miss Allen, 44, told her it was a book of witchcraft.

When the child’s mother complained to the school she was given a written warning. She later resigned, claiming she had been harassed since she complained that gloves had not been provided for giving first aid to children.

She told the Croydon employment tribunal that she believed “the girl reading the book would be cursing me by reading the spells”. But the tribunal rejected her claim of religious discrimination.

Durand is a non-denominational foundation school so staff are employed directly by the governers rather than the local authority. The school said it would be pursuing Miss Allan for its legal costs in the case. Miss Allan said was considering an appeal against the tribunal’s judgment.