A pregnant Jehovah's Witness has launched a bikini-clad protest against an independent school after it cut down the hedge that separated their properties.
By Auslan Cramb
Last Updated: 4:36PM GMT 19 Mar 2009
Naghme King, 39, staged the unusual demonstration after claiming that the head teacher had "stripped her of her assets".
Following a long-running boundary dispute, which has involved council officials and lawyers, she took to the streets of Milton Keynes, Bucks, this week carrying placards calling for the school principal Deborah Berkin to be "a bit more loving" and to realise that "God is love".
Mrs King, a mother-of-five who is six months pregnant, said there was nothing wrong with her bikini protest and she was merely spreading the gospel according to Jehovah.
Some neighbours in Redland Drive, Loughton, took a less charitable view, with one remarking that local children thought she was "mad".
Mrs King's dispute with the £10,300-a-year Grove Independent School began five years ago and according to its lawyers, the 176-pupil school has done everything possible to reach an amicable agreement over the boundary.
The neighbours' dispute started after Mr and Mrs King complained that staff had chopped down a 6ft wide hedge that divided their six-bedroom detached home from the school.
She said: "The hedge belonged to us and was on our property, on our land and the school chopped it down. It had no right to do this and take away our privacy." She added that they put up a wooden fence in its place, but it was also taken down.
"Since then I have walked up and down outside the school with my placards between eight and nine o'clock every morning," said Mrs King. Her protests are timed to coincide with the arrival of parents delivering their children.
The family is also said to have strung up an unsightly washing line visible to pupils and staff, put out bags of rubbish on the line where the hedge used to be, and played loud Salsa music directed at the principal's office.
A neighbour who asked not to be named, said: "It all started over a hedge but now it's gone crazy. The school has tried reasoning with her but she keeps launching these incredible protests.
"Yesterday she was pacing up and down outside wearing a witch's hat and carrying her placards with sayings from the bible on them.
"She times her protests for when parents are dropping off their children at school. On the last occasion she was very pregnant and a strange sight to see."
Milton Keynes Council said the rubbish dumping did not warrant legal action but environmental health officers were monitoring music levels.
Zoe Wright, a lawyer representing the school, said it had no objection to the Kings erecting a fence, provided it was on their own land.
Pregnant Jehovah Witness in bikini protest against independent school
by nicolaou 10 Replies latest social current
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nicolaou
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Mickey mouse
I so wish that article had pictures.
Edited to add: What sort of JWs are they living in a 6 bed detached house?
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skeeter1
No fair, we were not allowed to wear bikinis at the hotel pool during the conventions....
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drwtsn32
This thread is useless without pics.
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Finally-Free
Isn't it still too cold to wear a bikini?
W
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jeeprube
Where are the pics?
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nicolaou
Only picture I could find, this story made the front of the local rag.
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Finally-Free
I wonder if she counts her time when she's wearing the placard.
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keyser soze
I agree that her methods of protest makes her and the religion look nuts. But has anyone addressed the issue of whether or not her complaint is valid? Was the hedge on her property, and did the school have the right to just cut it down?
