High Court: Christian Purity Ring Not Religious

(West Sussex, England) As you may recall, the Millais School banned a 16-year-old girl, Lydia Playfoot, from wearing a "purity ring" to symbolize her decision to remain chaste before marriage. The ring is a simple band of silver given to youngsters who complete an evangelical church course preaching abstinence. It is inscribed with a Bible verse.

Playfoot ultimately appealed the decision to ban the rings to the High Court which had previously ruled that schools cannot be arbiters of faith. On the other hand, the High Court apparently can.

Judge Michael Supperstone QC said the school, which had insisted the ring was not an essential part of the Christian faith, was "fully justified" in its actions.

He ruled the act of wearing a ring was not "intimately linked" to the belief in chastity before marriage.

"The claimant (Miss Playfoot) was under no obligation, by reason of her belief, to wear the ring, nor does she suggest that she was so obliged," he said.

He rejected the submission that the ring was a "religious artefact" and therefore exempt from the school's uniform policy which bans jewellery.

Not only does Miss Playfoot lose the case, but the court also ordered her father to pay the school's legal bills -- about $25,000.

So, the school and the court ignore the bangles and headscarves of Sikhs and Muslims -- religious accoutrement -- while prohibiting Christian purity rings because they are mere jewelry.

I'm not surprised.