AN ASTHMATIC boy was refused a place on a school bus and told that he must walk six miles home because he was not a baptised Christian.

Thomas Rosevear, 13, a pupil at a Church of England comprehensive school, was stopped at the door of the bus as his friends got on. When his mother, Lin, complained she was told that if she wanted a pass she would have to pay £270 because her son was not a Christian.

Mrs Rosevear, a lapsed Baptist, said: “It is absolutely outrageous. My child is being discriminated against because I didn’t have him baptised. How dare they play God with demands like this.”

Her son, a pupil at St Mark Church of England voluntary aided school in Larkhall, Bath, had received a free bus pass for the previous two years.

Mrs Rosevear said: “My son’s lack of religion has never been a problem before, so why now? They let him into the school, so why can’t he get the bus just because he doesn’t share their beliefs? If they let him go to the school, why are they demanding so much money to let him get the bus there? It is hardly the most Christian thing to do.”

Cherril Pope, head teacher at St Mark’s, said that Thomas should not have been turned away, adding: “We are obviously very sorry that any of our children had to walk home under any circumstances.”

A spokesman for Bath and North East Somerset Council said: “Children at faith schools who are baptised into the faith of their school and who live beyond the statutory distance from the school are entitled to free home-to-school transport.”

He added: “Tom was previously issued with a free bus pass because of an error in the applications system. We are investigating how this happened.” He said that Thomas would be given a temporary bus pass valid until Christmas.

• An unlikely alliance of believers and sceptics has been formed to challenge the rise of creationist teaching in schools, which is based on a literal interpretation of the biblical story of creation. The Christian think-tank Ekklesia and the British Humanist Association sent a joint letter yesterday to Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, asking him to ensure a wholly scientific perspective in their teaching of the origin of species and Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

  A group called Truth in Science had sent free teaching resources to all secondary heads of science seeking space for creationist ideas and had appealed to parents through a website to challenge the science agenda in schools.

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