12 year old referred to Prevent fir saying ‘I’m gay not queer’ and ‘there’s only 2 genders’

Vivian Wulf, you may as well quote Nick Griffin on why something isn't racist.

the boys language about the bullies is understandable what with the schools failure to resolve racism. Must be incredibly frustrating and upsetting for the kid.

I can’t see why the two gender comments are an issue. Through legislation he is entitled to hold such belief

If what I've read is accurate

We've all read it, it's literally in the article linked in the OP.

The "weapon" is a wooden crossbow that shoots little sticks, sold by English Heritage for children aged 7+. It wouldn't hurt an ant. I wonder if the police managed to keep a straight face when questioning him over his 'unhealthy obsession' with a piece of wood.

There is no 'title manipulation', it's the headline of the story. His mum says the school contacted her and were 'incensed' by his 'gay not queer' comments and told her they'd referred him to Prevent for that. So it is a relevant part of the story.

"12 year old referred to Prevent fir saying ‘I’m gay not queer’ and ‘there’s only 2 genders’"

Yeah, it was totally that and nothing to do with him saying "he wanted to "exterminate" his classmates and is described as having an "unhealthy obsession with weapons".

If what I've read is accurate. Nice title manipulation you got there to make this out to be a gender critical issue when it's not.

x.com/MxVivianWulf/status/1808527079270420781

I disagree. It sounds like utter victim blaming, especially as it sounds like the school did nothing about the bullying.

The first post of mine you quoted was a reply to a PP who was focused on the status of this boy as a victim of bullying.

So yes, in that case, I feel a child might be out of sorts, showing subtle changes in mood, acting out of character, being aggressive, looking for a new group to find acceptance... all of which could look like potential warning signs of being at risk of radicalisation according to the training and common sense.

So referring is right.

But are they relevant in this case?

No.

I clearly meant the whole list of things I'd previously given which you'd discounted as important and queried.

Are you saying that stating the fact of there being two sexes and not wanting to be called queer is "presenting worryingly"???

We helped Jewish dc escape in WWII.
Adults were mostly left to their fate.
The British Quakers worked hard to help get Jews out of German occupied Europe. Jews were still classed as enemy aliens though.

It is horrendous. My wife is an atheist but culturally and ethnically Jewish. Her father came over with Kindertransport. It has been incredibly painful for her to see LGBT people supporting Hamas and denying the rape, torture and murder of Jewish people. We are no fan of the Israeli regime and are horrified to see the scale of suffering faced by Palestinian civilians, many of whom are women and children. But to see LGBT cheering on Hamas, who persecute LGBT Palestinians as well, is disgusting. I see a lot of parallels with the TRA extremism because both have made us feel unwelcome in what should be our community as lesbian women.

A Jewish LGBT group opted out of pride because they were seriously concerned about their safety. There seems a lot of crossover between the various protest groups around at the moment.

It has to do with it that those things are reason enough to refer to Prevent. It's to support children who present worryingly. Some of the comments or opinions are not reasons themselves, just part of lazy journalism or the bigger picture.

Just like if I saw bruises, I'd refer to DSL. They might be just from sport. But they might be from parental abuse. And he might have three goldfish, but it's not the point or why I'm acting as I am. I think something might be wrong, so I pass it on.

@TicklishLemur Well that's insane. The rise of anti Semitism in this country is getting scary. I've read posts on here from Jewish Mumsnetters who are taking about leaving the UK, or have already left, when once upon a time we welcomed Jewish people. Even Oliver Cromwell allowed Jewish people to settle in Britain, and obviously during WW2 we helped them escape the Nazis. It makes me feel very uneasy.

Absolutely. Hamas are classed as a terrorist organisation in this country. Of course this boy would hate a group which murdered and tortured so many innocent people simply because they were Jewish. He didn’t say he wanted to wipe Palestinians out, which would be a totally different matter. How dare the police call him a terrorist for that? Meanwhile just a few months back a police officer told a Jewish man he had to leave the area where a pro Palestine rally was taking place as him being ‘openly Jewish’ (i.e. wearing a skullcap) was provocative.

I'd be prepared to give Prevent the benefit of the doubt although I'll caveat that by admitting I'm relatively ignorant of the organisation. People report all sorts of stupid stuff to the 'authorities', there are loads of articles about insane 999 calls for example. Prevent would be open for criticism on what they did following what was reported to them. If he was reported as an incipient far right terrorist, set on a genocide of Muslims I could understand why they'd need to speak to him.

But the school....!

The school didn’t know how to handle this without pissing off a couple of activists so they bumped it off to Prevent.

Its shameful.

This kind of fuckery is what makes people radical. He didn’t say anything wrong.

And what has any of that to do with a boy stating the simple fact that there are two sexes, and that he doesn't want to be referred to by the slur "queer"? That's only terrorism in TRA land, where making oneself off-limits to anyone is considered a crime.

That’s true actually. It was regarded as character building for me in the 80s. We were told to hit back though, stand up for yourself. Nowadays they are told they must not hit back and to tell teachers but when they do nothing happens. They spent months telling the children about their rights but do nothing to protect those rights. It’s no wonder so many young people are so stressed these days.

I thought he was referred to Prevent due to his anti Hamas comments? Which is more understandable than being referred to an anti terrorist organisation for being gender critical. Obviously there’s a big argument that stating that a terrorist organisation should be wiped out isn’t an extreme view but they probably want to ensure he’s not anti Palestine or anti Muslim 🤷🏻‍♀️

and yes the antisemitism by the other kids should be dealt with.

From my experience of 42-54 years ago, school was like a mild version of prison (hear me out). If you're getting picked on you are really expected to fight for yourself by both inmates/pupils and screws/teachers. If you do complain instead of fighting back the authority figures will do something perfunctory to address it but the persecution will resume and it will be all the worse for "grassing".

The only thing that stops it is if your peers have a personal fear of you, based on being willing to return the violence and punish insults.

Schools really do so little about bullying these days.

Did they ever? When I went to school, bullying used to be primarily regarded as 'character-building', in my memory. And I'm not saying I went to a 'rough' or violent school, far from it.

Schools really do so little about bullying these days. Then when victims react. By video in this case they can vilify and place equal blame. The prevent thing is terrifying. Perhaps 1984 just had the date wrong. Give it another decade.

What far right views though? The only whiff of 'far right' in that article is the behaviour of the Nazi-saluting bullies.

The article states that the boy was reported and interrogated because said he's gay not 'queer' and 'there are only 2 genders', as anyone is entitled to believe and express.

The police 'raised concerns that he harboured extremist views' because he, a Jewish boy, said he'd like to see a proscribed terrorist group wiped out.

They questioned his 'unhealthy interest in weapons' because he played with a wooden toy crossbow that shoots flimsy wooden sticks with foam tips as far as one can spit.

If any of that is far right, then I best get reporting my old sex-ed and biology teachers to Prevent. Plus my parents for the toys they bought us. And myself for hoping to see the end of a terrorist group.

Doesn't it come down to, was he referred to Prevent for saying ‘I’m gay not queer’ and ‘there’s only 2 genders’ or for having far right terrorist views? If for the former, that's disgraceful, and if for the latter, as PP have said, it doesn't seem unreasonable coming from a young Jewish kid. He's clearly not a proto-terrorist.