Brighton and Hove council Trans Tool kit is likely illegal - Brighton family threatening legal action if not withdrawn

I wish the parents luck. The Brighton toolkit needed to be challenged 5 years ago when Oxfordshire backed out of legal action brought by a 13 year old girl. If it had been challenged under JR then it's likely it would have been withdrawn then and other LAs would have followed.

This is the OCC for anyone interested.

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/legal-action-against-oxfordshire-county-council/

Ive just read an article about a trans Gp in Brighton/ hove who's been using a loophole to dish out PBs to children.

I think it was the times. What a horrific place

It's going to get very messy as there are a lot of egos involved who will struggle to distance themselves from their involvement in pushing transgenderism at children. There's a massive head of steam building and I'm not sure that schools are prepared for the vastly increased numbers of parents now feeling empowered by the revelations from the Cass report who will openly challenge a lot of the indoctrination of children that's happening.

Good idea. The conflict between gender reassignment and child safeguarding / the protected characteristic of age (youth) has never been tested in the courts. This has allowed the dodgy activists to claim that of course gender reassignment applies to children of any age and legal advice concurs because we've no case law.
It's unacceptable for schools to be put in the firing line for legal challenge. The groups wanting children to transition are very wealthy and won't hesitate to bully schools and remove their ability to safeguard children. So it's essential that the government steps in and takes on the responsibility for arguing in the courts that the safety of children is more important than trans ideology

It's mentioned here as a case - parents have given a school two weeks?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/14/hilary-cass-review-gender-trans-young-people-children-nhs-evidence?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

As we report today, the parents of one child whose school facilitated their social transition without their knowledge have given Brighton council two weekss* to withdraw the trans toolkit it has endorsed for use across all its schools, or face legal action in light of legal advice from the country’s leading equality and human rights lawyer, Karon Monaghan KC, that the toolkit is itself unlawful and advises schools to act unlawfully.

Am I understanding right that this is an upcoming case? When is the case coming to court? I'd like to share Karon Monoaghan KC's document with my school, but wondering if it will be batted back if it hasn't been tested in court yet.

From the Observer article:

The ASCL told the Observer this weekend that it had called on the government “to take on and represent any legal challenges against schools” which are following its guidance.

That’s actually not a bad idea: it would give schools no excuse not to be following the government’s guidance. And then someone else (Stonewall?? Brighton and Hove Council??) could take on liability for any legal challenges to schools using the trans toolkit to shape their policies…

The neu need to start sorting themselves out as if teachers don't know the issues all they see is the neu banging on about challenging the government on the trans guidelines.

Do email safe schools alliance or message on Twitter. They may well be able to put people who want to bring a challenge about in touch with relevant people

So sorry you've been put through this OP and I'm so glad to see this legal opinion. I hope it ripples out beyond B&H to other councils, schools, and organisations like teaching unions which have been spouting crap on gender identity.

This is in today's Sunday times about Brighton

Doctor exploits NHS loophole to prescribe hormones for children

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/992adfd9-476a-45fe-a63d-e2b43a676894?shareToken=fb8488616dce9e2e53009fbe8ee5580a

A version of this toolkit was used to justify secretly transing my stepdaughter by her Hertfordshire school back in 2019.

I really should write to the governors/senior leadership team of that school re Cass (she’s not there now).

Unsuprisingly the school wasn’t actually equipped to keep such a big secret as a child having a completely different identity in school to that at home, IME schools always seem to fuck up their own secrecy policy, parents find out when they log into dinner money accounts to find strange names listed or when a teacher uses the wrong name on parents evening, or when the parent of a classmate asks you about your child’s new pronouns in a WhatsApp group.

Surely if the school truly believes your child would be ‘unsafe’ if they were to disclose the trans identity to you, schools wouldn’t be so careless? A nice, stage managed meeting with a couple of staff members and a plate of cheapo biscuits would be a much better way to tell a ‘transphobic parent’ than letting it randomly come up via playground gossip. After all, you can’t actually force 1500 kids to secrecy, even if you are silly enough to think secret-keeping is a good idea.

Up here in MCR there seems to be a lot less secret transing going on than down south and elsewhere, instead of the Allsorts Toolkit the battle here is against totally age-inappropriate sex ed material courtesy of The Proud Trust (of the Anal Sex Dice Game fame).

Sending my very best to those legally challenging the toolkit, it’s a terrible bit of policy that should never have been allowed anywhere near a school.

That’s the one!

Would be up for anonymously applying pressure on the school, but I’m already pissing them off complaining about another bonkers policy - restricting access to the canteen at breaktime by segregating groups according to ATL scored (subjective, retrospective and highly problematic in their own right).

Suspect that there might be serious problems with leadership in that place - not much evidence of either critical thinking or safeguarding 😣

Are you aware of https://pshebrighton.org/
@LogicLoverLlama
They are a parent-led organisation set up to challenge gender ideology in Brighton's schools.

That's the one I'm talking about.
It's been captured for years, and in national newspapers before.

You're right. Schools must be politically impartial. Since the 1996 Education Act it's been a legal requirement.
I wonder whether that was in the barrister's analysis of that toolkit? Trouble is, nobody challenges schools - given that Ofsted used to be signed up to Stonewall and has only recently reverse ferreted away from them, it's no wonder schools break the law like this.

In case it's useful, here's the guidance for schools which covers the statutory aspects of political impartiality in schools:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools

I wonder if we have kids at the same school, OP. My son’s year 7 tutor had trans flags all over his email, which I was surprised by. I thought teachers were prevented from political campaigning. It’s quite weird how schools can’t see this issue for what it is.

I wonder if all the active campaigning might have had unintended consequences unfortunately, with regard to children’s attitudes to gender and LGB issues. My now year 9 year son rolls his eyes visibly at any gay rights issues I bring up and seems to be quite taken with gendered stereotyping, which is depressing.

Here in solidarity @LogicLoverLlama sending hugs from one mum battling this to another.

I'm sorry this is affecting you @LogicLoverLlama

I wrote to the Governors at a large popular secondary school in Brighton back in 2018, outlining my concerns with the Toolkit. My concerns were discussed at a Full Governors Meeting.

That school (I believe the same one relating to this case) cannot pretend they didn't know there were concerns. They have been acting in full knowledge that people have questioned what they were doing by following the Toolkit guidelines.

I hope more light is shone on what has been going on in our schools.