The Jewish state school openly admitted that it had done so, saying that it was done to “protect” the students.
Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ school in Stamford Hill has admitted to blacking out all references to homosexuality in its schoolbooks. In one such instance, a history book about Nazi persecution now reads: “They persecuted any group that they thought challenged Nazi ideas: [redacted] were a threat to Nazi ideals on traditional family life.”
The books also censored instances of women drinking, smoking and even driving with men. A photograph of Fred Astaire dancing with Ginger Rogers was also censored, as was a paragraph on the Supreme Court case Roe v Wade, which made abortion a legal right in the U.S.
The practice was uncovered following an investigation by Humanists UK. The charity’s education campaigns manager, Jay Harman said: “It is simply not acceptable for a state-funded school to take such a censorious, homophobic, and misogynistic approach to education.
“Nor is it acceptable for such a school to be rated “good”. Once again, the consequences of giving religion free reign over our education system are brought into sharp focus.
“Children deserve so much better than this, so we hope Ofsted will now investigate and take action immediately.”
Harman later added: “Ofsted has said schools that take this approach, ignoring different sexual orientations and the beliefs of groups [then they] are not meeting their obligation under the Equality Act.
“You cannot teach kids to be tolerant to people who are different if you are ignorant of those people.”
However, a spokesman for the school dismissed the new claims as “old news.” He told The Guardian: “This policy has nothing to do homophobia or misogyny, but is to protect our girls from sexualisation in line with our parents’ wishes and religious beliefs.”
However, it’s not just religious schools which are censoring instances of LGBTQ people. In January, the Laurence Jackson School censored student Megan Angus’s art project, which featured two women kissing, as its was too “sexually explicit.”
Angus wrote on Facebook: “Can’t get more of a homophobic school that Laurence Jackson school sticking censored allover my work not getting my permission, not the first time for that school ruined my work I spent 40 hours on thanks a lot.”
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