Telegraph: Teacher sacked for attempting to scupper trans candidate’s hopes of being head girl

That’s the only actual example given of “derogatory language” unless I’ve missed something? It does sound like the teacher was unprofessional though, she shouldn’t let a class sit around discussing a fellow pupil. I suspect a back story other than “transphobia” regarding the negativity that was apparently unleashed in the discussion, but we’ll never know

Yes it does depend on context and i agree re unprofessional, appropriate action should have been taken against the teacher….although ive no idea whether sacking her was a proportional response

Women's and girls rights are the issue really. If girls are supposed to have a head girl (on a par with the boys having a head boy), then that is what they should expect. Maybe a transgirl or transboy could propose and lobby for the creation of trans representative(s) position(s) if they identify as different from their biological sex.

Women's and girls rights are a completely laudable aim.

It's very odd that the paper talks about a head girl position, then. Maybe it didn't form part of the hearing but did form part of the teachers and girls' concern.

Either way, the wording is so opaque as to be useless.

But I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that males should not be representing females, in any way. Apart from having no knowledge of their needs, a transwoman will be specifically embodying damaging female stereotypes.

Please read the hearing outcome

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006165/OFFICIAL_SENSITIVE_SoS_decision_Ms_Spare__18664__REDACTED_for_WEB_PDF.pdf

There is absolutely no mention at all of there being a ‘Head Girl’ position.

The child was going for a role on the ‘Senior Student Leadership Team’ and the teacher said in front of many other pupils that she would rank this child last because she didn’t think it was appropriate. That was unprofessional, she made a mistake and she wholly owned up to that.

This does not seem to be what many here are making it out to be.

At every school I’ve dealt with, the Head Girl has represented their school NOT their gender. It is also typically awarded based on academic and extra-curricular merit. Therefore I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

If its nothing to do with gender then why even have 'head boy and head girl'? Why not just have 2 head boys? Presumably the point of head boy and head girl is equal representation, but you don't really get that if 2 males are in those positions. It's basically like all women shortlists and women's officer positions, on a smaller scale. But it's still not fair and, and usual it's female who miss out. Same shit as ever.

The girls have every right to be angry and call the idea of a boy being head girl "disgusting". Because it bloody well is.

I find it odd that we haven't been told what the "derogatory" comments allegedly made by pupils were. "Disgusting" is the only one we have been told of, which may be appropriate in some contexts depending on the behaviour of Pupil I. What else was said? I suspect that the comments made were rather less shocking than has been made out. "But [Pupil I] can't be Head Girl, he's a boy..." etc.

Head Girls are representative of girls within the school. They are there to highlight and support girls issues. Girls come to them for advice and support. They might want to highlight issues of boys misbehaviour, the lack of tampons in the toilets, whatever...... a transgender girl will not be able in any way to fulfill that role, and I doubt the girls in the girls in the school would feel represented or supported by them in any way at all.

Here is the write up of the hearing.

Page 7 onwards describes what happened. It's short on detail. But what little detail there is indicates, certainly to me, that the teacher and pupils were aghast at the proposal.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006165/OFFICIAL_SENSITIVE_SoS_decision_Ms_Spare__18664__REDACTED_for_WEB_PDF.pdf

I think the teacher was in the wrong. Clearly there was some kind of voting taking place for both pupils and teachers so they were being given a choice. All she had to do was not vote for the pupil. No way should she be trying to influence a vote. And allowing derogatory comments to be made in a classroom is completely wrong.

Context is missing.
I’m wondering if the girls thought it was a terrible thing for a very recently transitioned pupil to take the position of head girl and were very angry about it so they used the word disgusting in regard to the situation and their opinion of the entitlement of the pupil to seek to represent them. Ie how would this pupil speak on the girls experiences of sexual harassment periods access to toilets etc ?

Therefore I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

The reason why we have head girls as well as head boys is to ensure equal representation of male and female children. If two male children represent the school, there is no equal representation.

As for the teacher - I would like to see the exact wording of her remarks and those of the pupils. Generally speaking, in my view no teacher should be singling out any pupil in this manner, no matter what the occasion. The teacher could have had a conversation about equal representation of the sexes not being ensured if two male or two female individuals are chosen in a different manner.

It still would most likely have been obvious what prompted the conversation, but by keeping it general, the teacher could have easily stopped all remarks against the pupil in question as being inappropriate.

Teachers have a duty of care towards all children and on the face of that article, she failed in that duty.

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@Jorriss if the child identified as male then yes.

Voted for not sweated 🙈

@LazyViper the female students do have a say. Am I missing something? You put yourself forward as head girl, you are sweated by your peers. So if the other students didn’t want her to be heard girl, they wouldn’t vote for her.

I don’t know. I tend to wonder if a girl that age describing a male schoolmate that age as “disgusting” might have some emotion other than transphobia underlying the description. There is certainly some personal history between the two colouring the remark.

That’s the only actual example given of “derogatory language” unless I’ve missed something? It does sound like the teacher was unprofessional though, she shouldn’t let a class sit around discussing a fellow pupil. I suspect a back story other than “transphobia” regarding the negativity that was apparently unleashed in the discussion, but we’ll never know.

Therefore I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

Do you also think a boy could take the role of head girl?

I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

So you think that the position of 'head girl' should just be open to both boys and girls (same for 'head boy', presumably)?

Of course a boy shouldn't be head girl! The male in question had only decided to say they were a girl at the beginning of the year. The girls must have been fuming.

And the comments might well have been inappropriate, but as correctly sexing the person in question could likely have been considered bigoted and transphobic, without further details, I'll reserve judgment.