The Clown of Pevensey Bay
Well-known member
WITCH SACKED FOR POOR ATTENDANCE, TRIBUNAL TOLD
By Lucy Collins, PA
A witch was accused of using her beliefs as a scapegoat for her being sacked,
an employment tribunal heard today.
Sommer De La Rosa, 34, a practising white witch of the Wiccan faith, is
claiming unfair dismissal after being fired from the Dorothy Stringer School in
Brighton, East Sussex.
She claimed she was banned from discussing her faith and wearing a pentagram -
a symbol of her faith.
But the school claims she was sacked for her poor attendance. She had 21.5
days off during her six-month probationary period.
Ms De La Rosa worked in the religious studies and music department of the
school for eight months until May last year.
The Hove tribunal heard that Ms De La Rosa received advice on discussing her
faith with pupils just once, and the subject was only ever raised again by her.
Ms De La Rosa, a single mother, accused her line manager Ros Stephens of being
"openly discriminatory" because she "compared my religion to communism
stating that it could lead to complaints of tainted teaching methods".
She said: "This made me feel like a freak and that my beliefs were wrong."
Ms Stephens told the tribunal: "I was saying 'if you have a strong belief
then maybe it's just best not to mention it at all because it's leading you into
unknown territory'."
She accused Ms De La Rosa of using a meeting to discuss her poor attendance
record to talk about her faith.
She said: "It was dominating the whole meeting which was meant to be about
attendance."
Explaining her communism analogy, she said: "My father was a communist in the
1920s and `30s and fought against fascism and had very strong convictions about
what was right. He was a school teacher. He would always go back to his
political convictions.
"The way the meeting was progressing, wanting to talk about religion,
reminded me of that. It was not meant to be offensive either to my father or to
Sommer."
Ms Stephens said that Ms De La Rosa was employed as a departmental assistant
and her duties were primarily to provide sick cover for teachers.
She said: "We were forced to bring in additional staff in order to cover
staff she should have covered.
mfl
231346 MAR 07
By Lucy Collins, PA
A witch was accused of using her beliefs as a scapegoat for her being sacked,
an employment tribunal heard today.
Sommer De La Rosa, 34, a practising white witch of the Wiccan faith, is
claiming unfair dismissal after being fired from the Dorothy Stringer School in
Brighton, East Sussex.
She claimed she was banned from discussing her faith and wearing a pentagram -
a symbol of her faith.
But the school claims she was sacked for her poor attendance. She had 21.5
days off during her six-month probationary period.
Ms De La Rosa worked in the religious studies and music department of the
school for eight months until May last year.
The Hove tribunal heard that Ms De La Rosa received advice on discussing her
faith with pupils just once, and the subject was only ever raised again by her.
Ms De La Rosa, a single mother, accused her line manager Ros Stephens of being
"openly discriminatory" because she "compared my religion to communism
stating that it could lead to complaints of tainted teaching methods".
She said: "This made me feel like a freak and that my beliefs were wrong."
Ms Stephens told the tribunal: "I was saying 'if you have a strong belief
then maybe it's just best not to mention it at all because it's leading you into
unknown territory'."
She accused Ms De La Rosa of using a meeting to discuss her poor attendance
record to talk about her faith.
She said: "It was dominating the whole meeting which was meant to be about
attendance."
Explaining her communism analogy, she said: "My father was a communist in the
1920s and `30s and fought against fascism and had very strong convictions about
what was right. He was a school teacher. He would always go back to his
political convictions.
"The way the meeting was progressing, wanting to talk about religion,
reminded me of that. It was not meant to be offensive either to my father or to
Sommer."
Ms Stephens said that Ms De La Rosa was employed as a departmental assistant
and her duties were primarily to provide sick cover for teachers.
She said: "We were forced to bring in additional staff in order to cover
staff she should have covered.
mfl
231346 MAR 07
