A private tuition company run by two Church of Scientology London staff members has removed misleading claims that they have a partnership with West Sussex County Council, after they were found out to be false.
Trusted Tutors, which was co-founded by Scott and Dorothy Milton, display several logos of schools and local authorities on their website under the heading ‘Who we’ve educated with’. The list includes the London Borough Havering, Hackney Council and until today, West Sussex County Council.
Scott Milton is understood to hold the post of HAS (HCO Area Secretary) at the Church of Scientology London, placing him in charge of Division 1 – the part of the organisation responsible for declaring critics ‘Suppressive People’ and dishing out controversial ‘Ethics handlings’ to parishioners such as lower conditions and hard manual labour.
Scott’s mother Dorothy Milton is currently Director of Training, responsible for delivering Scientology’s auditor training courses.
It is unclear whether Trusted Tutors makes use of L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘Study Technology’, however their position in the Church presents serious safeguarding concerns for children under their supervision.
Sackville School in Sussex is listed as one of their teaching partnerships and a letter published on the Trusted Tutors website suggests they work primarily with children who have Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in place. This presents a conflict with Scientology’s belief system, which denies the existence of conditions such as autism, ADHD and teaches such people are considered ‘degraded beings’ who face challenges due to ‘pulling it in’.
On raising our concerns with Sackville School, Assistant Headteacher Alex Millican told us “We take safeguarding extremely seriously at Sackville School. We do work with Trusted tutors in a limited capacity and have carried out all safeguarding checks that West Sussex requires of us to ensure we keep our students safe.”
However, West Sussex County Council denied they have a partnership with Trusted Tutors. In a statement to Scientology Business, a representative said “I have spoken with my Team and I can confirm that there is no affiliation between West Sussex County Council and Trusted Tutors and I have instructed my team to write to them and ask them to remove the authority’s logo.”
The West Sussex County Council logo has since been removed. We are awaiting a response from the other authorities listed on their website.
UPDATE: In a statement to Scientology Business, a Hackney Council representative has also confirmed it “does not commission the services of Trusted Tutors and our logo has been removed from their site.”
Update published (18.45 GMT 24th January)
2 responses
Using government logos without permission is SOP for $cientology's front groups. They've been called out on this several times in the USofA.
And here in the UK. Jeff Beaumont (PTS for Life) did great work exposing Truth About Drugs’ use of various Police Force logos on their website claiming endorsement, including the Met Police in London. They were subsequently all removed.