Only Catholics can ride on the school bus

A council has been accused of religious discrimination after banning a schoolgirl from taking its bus to her Roman Catholic school because she has not been baptised. Jessica Millest, 15, will now have to take four separate buses to complete the 18 mile journey after her local authority banned non-Catholics from using the service.

She said: "Non-religious people are seen as non-entitled, so they are not allowed to use the bus as of next term. It seems a bit discriminatory to me that I'm not allowed on the bus because of my religion."


Photo from here.

Jessica, who is studying for her GCSEs, has paid £120 per term to use the subsidised service to travel to St Mary's RC school in Lugwardine, Herefordshire, from her home in Linton but was recently told that from September Herefordshire County Council was removing availability to the 40 per cent of non-Catholic pupils at the 700-pupil school.

A spokesman for Herefordshire Council said it could save £22,000 a year by withdrawing seats for non-Catholic students, around 50 of which are affected.