School yearbook is including pronouns!

Disclaimer: except in cases where the school has genuine concerns for the welfare of the pupil resulting from revealing this info.

Ffs.
But... if the yearbook potentially outs a school for having facilitated or encouraged the social transitioning of pupils whole keeping it secret from the parents, then good!

Or xe, xem, xyr, xyrs, xemself, hard to remember ones like that?

Assuming they mean they will refer to each kid using the pronouns they have on record rather than that they are going list pronouns under the individual's name I don't think this is a big deal. What else are they supposed to do, use "they" for everyone? i

In terms of the future of the children involved I don't think it will have any significant impact. If the 75% isn't hyperbole, then I wouldn't be concerned at all. In years to come it won't matter if they didn't really mean it/did mean it/have changed back/have stuck with it etc. it will look like it was a craze the same as if they all sat for the photo with one eye closed but anyone going around with one eye still closed was obviously not just part of the craze.

If the 75% is hyperbole and it's more like 5 or 10 in the year then it will probably be a bit unfortunate for some of them, but not a disaster they can't wave away with a "I was having a laugh"/"I was unsure back then"/"School admin were bloody useless, had me signed up for A levels when I was in year 8 too!".

75%? Are you sure?

In my school of 2000 I know 4 kids

Wait until I tell you about bun/bunself…

I can honestly say, I have never heard of Ze etc until this thread, and had to look it up. Thought it was a typo at first.

Kids are all fine with this kind of stuff - us the oldies who are up in arms. Hopefully its becoming a better world for all.

Steering the children, personally I would complain or find another school. my kids school didnt even teach them about periods so this is stupid when they are not even teaching them about biology properly

I’d done my share of producing documents with various contributors and editors and believe me, it’s a bloody nightmare at the best of times.

With shifting goalposts like this, I’d go mad.

Because yes, if they are using pronouns they have on record (what, they have at some point asked?) there will be some smart Alec who announced that he is actually ‘she/her’ on the day to have a laugh with his pals. The school then gets a very irate call from his mum saying that the school should have known he was having a laugh (and must therefore reprint the whole book) - or worse still, excitedly demanding that ‘Sandra’ is now addressed as such and a special assembly must be held to introduce the new girl to class (while Alex starts packing his bags and looking up one way flights to Tasmania).

What happens when it's published and distributed and Betty has a meltdown as it says she/him/they instead of zhe/zhim?

School is threatened with legal action, as of course the wrong pronouns were used...hate crime innit?

they're drawing attention to the specific children who are trans.

Not so much if it's the majority that use pronouns that don't match their sex.

it seems about 75% of the children use 'pronouns' that don't match their sex in my dc's school

Also ... 75%!?

I've been working in a UK secondary school for the last 15 years and have never encountered a pupil here indentifying as transgender or non-binary, or using pronouns that don't match their sex. I'm guessing (but correct me if I'm wrong) that of the 75%, most don't actually identify as trans or non-binary, and that the pronoun business is explicitly acknowledged as a fashion thing.

My school is clearly not up to date with the current fashion - we've never done yearbooks either (I thought that was just a weird US custom).

Betty must be a very bored and annoying DC, all pronouns would need to be referenced if in doubt.

Imagine a DC describing Betty to someone, "Betty is over soon, can he-she-they stay for lunch?"

Does the school not have any work to do? I’d hate to be in charge of that (oh the drama of you get one wrong).

So the school ‘holds’ this info? I’d be asking them when this was taken, and why.

It’s easier enough to skate around it ‘Betty is in the chess team. They like to skate. Betty is a keen writer and wants to be a professional ice skater…’. As long as they aren’t planning on having the pronouns written under the photos/name

Betty Smith
He/she/they (yes I have seen this)

drawing attention to the fact that some children are trans
Sorry, correction, they're drawing attention to the specific children who are trans. We don't want specific children to get too much attention do we? Surely that's transphobic

Safe schools alliance might help

If its " safe" to out kids this way why on earth are they listening to all the "taining" that says to do it behinds backs?

Which is it?. The Kids are so oppressed amd In danger you must flout parental rights and ignore safeguarding amd have adults keeping secrets.

Or they are all fine and we can out them in a year book?

I'm.confused

it seems about 75% of the children use 'pronouns' that don't match their sex in my dc's school

I take it you must live in Brighton.

I think this is a really bad idea (but I disagree with socially transitioning children anyway).

A child in my dc's year at school went from she to they to he during the last year. What is the school going to do about the children who are 'she' when the book goes to print and 'they or he' by the time they get it back?

This is so sad. That this has infiltrated down to primary leavers yearbook. How sad.

I wonder how the school feels this fits with the whole 'keep it secret from the parents' thing as they will be outing every child in the school year to every parent of every child.
Therefore any parent could then contact another parent to say "Did you know your child is using the pronouns of the opposite sex?" because of the school publishing it.

Do they have permission to wilfully, in their view put these young people at risk?
They do after all argue that is one of the reasons why they don't share this information with parents in the first place.

Parents may be shocked to find their son Mohammed is a she/her and daughter Mary is a ze/zer.

Perhaps it will be an eye opener for the ideology in schools?

It states that pronouns used will be those that are in the school's records.

I would assume that means the school are just using accurate (sex based) pronouns since there is no way they should have anything else recorded.

Presumably it's a disclaimer to avoid kids wanting to argue about it.

I was wondering aloud from a GDPR perspective. How can they add the pronouns without asking what the are? Have they asked before and stored it on file or are they planning to derive it from a sex/gender marker already on each kid's file? So if F then she/her. It sounds like they haven't thought it through and don't fully understand gender identity theory.

If they've got a sex or gender listed for each kid on file (sounds like the case) then I expect they'll be deriving the pronouns from that. They will be open to criticism from the kids if they get it wrong - we're always told that you can't assume pronouns and that's what it sounds like they're doing. In gender identity theory appearance, identity, pronouns etc don't have to be congruent.

Sorry, that doesn't answer your questions, I'm just musing about the many ways this is likely to blow up in their [the school's] face.

I'm sure someone more helpful will be along soon!