Joe Evans, of the Bristol Steiner Free School,
on Science, Vaccination, and Unchecked Bullying
We interviewed Joe Evans, business manager of the Bristol Steiner Free School, on the 1st of April 2014 with the aim of addressing accountability issues through documentary at the outset of the Steiner free school movement. Joe was happy to go on the record about the Bristol initiative.
We're publishing an excerpt in response to some recent contradictions between public and private statements by the British Humanist Association (BHA) about their concerns regarding Steiner education, namely unchecked bullying which the BHA have only discussed privately, and "pseudoscience on the curriculum [...], homeopathy being given to pupils by schools' 'anthroposophical doctors', and the fact that a number of private and at least one state school has opted out of providing vaccinations."
Having asked Richy Thompson, the BHA's Faith Schools and Education Campaign Officer, for a comment over a week ago, prior to publishing our article about the differences in the BHA’s reliance on private Steiner school data in assessing certain risks of known problems, and in spite of seeking a response from the BHA since then, they have not addressed their inconsistent approach towards private vs state-funded Steiner schools on the issues of pseudoscience, vaccination and unchecked bullying.
In fact they haven’t replied at all in further direct contradiction to their publicly stated values of "engaging in debate, intelligently and with attention to evidence, recognising the dignity of individuals and treating them with fairness and respect."
We respectfully continue to ask the BHA to begin engaging according to their advertised values, as we are ready to, and we hope that they will appreciate and acknowledge that this Steiner proponent, who has given a candid interview on these very subjects months ago, is speaking directly to their stated concerns.
The interview also includes a statement from Joe Evans about the unchecked bullying situation in the New Zealand Titirangi Rudolf Steiner School which resulted in a settlement signed through Human Rights mediation.