‘Purity ring’ pupil heads to court

A teenage girl who was banned by her school from wearing a “purity ring” is taking her case to the High Court.

Lydia Playfoot, 16, is one of a group of Christians at the Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, who wears the ring engraved with a Biblical verse as a sign of their belief in abstinence from sex until marriage.

She claims her secondary school, which allows Muslim and Sikh students to wear headscarfs and religious bracelets, is breaching her human rights by preventing her from wearing the ring.

Miss Playfoot will argue her right to express her religious beliefs under Article Nine of the Human Rights Act has been breached by the ban.

The school denies her claims, arguing the purity ring is not an integral part of the Christian faith and contravenes its uniform policy.

Ahead of the court case Miss Playfoot said the purity ring was not a fad.

She told BBC Breakfast: “It says that I’m not going to have sex until I’m married and I’m going to stay sexually pure until I’m married. In the Bible it says you should remain sexually pure and I think this is a way I want to express my faith.

“I think in the society we live in today with lots of pregnancies and STDs, something like this is quite important and should be taken hold of.”

Her father, Phil Playfoot, said rings had been worn by Christians for many hundreds of years and Lydia wore hers as a symbol of her commitment to her faith.

He said they were pursuing the case, although his daughter was leaving the school, because she represented many thousands of young people who had made the same commitment.

“I think an important principle is at stake here, I think Christians should be respected for their views and beliefs. As other faiths are allowed to express their views through the wearing of headscarfs or the Kara bracelet of a Sikh, I think Lydia should be able to wear a ring as an expression of her faith,” he told the BBC.

http://www.millais.co.uk