LGBT club being closed at school

[ditavonteesed]

Dd2 has told me this morning that the LGBT club they have at lunch time at school has been closed by the head teacher as apparently they are too much of a minority to have a club. Now I'm sure there is more to it than that and I intend to try and find out the reasons behind this decision today.

I'm pretty mad, please help me word my complaint to the headteacher if this is in fact the case. Surely this is actually discrimination.

Include something about mental health, a safe space, feeling included etc.

My sons school can’t be bothered to start one for fear of bullying.🤔Says a lot about the atmosphere and priorities.

That's terrible. I have sent an email to the teacher that ran the club asking her to tell me the reasons as I don't want to take what dd said as gospel and go in guns blazing. I have also thanked her for supporting my daughter. When I get a reply I shall be emailing the head for an explanation.

Maybe there aren't enough people attending to warrant it?
Just a thought.
Why don't you start a club in your free time?

How many actually attend?

There are defiantly quite a few children that attend and the teacher that ran the club has got back to me already. Dd told me she was upset by this decision. I shall contact the head shortly to explain further why they made this decision.

Running an extra club at lunchtime can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It may well be that the teacher can’t manage it and the attendance thing is an excuse. Teachers aren’t paid for lunch clubs so I can’t see that low numbers is really a reason for someone else to decide if has to close.

Sorry, cross posted with you.

What did the teacher actually say?

She said that the decision did not come from her and that a number of pupils had been very upset by the decision and that she would urge me to contact the head to explain his reasons.

too much of a minority to have a club

Oh the irony! Best of luck taking on the head.. my sympathies to your daughter. I hope the battle is won in a spectacular fashion!

To be fair, though, if they have a set number of pupils needed to make it worthwhile to run a club, I think it's OTT to be horrified about it. Could your DD organise something to raise awareness that the club exists and to make more people want to come? There could be students who'd like to go but feel a bit nervous, couldn't there?

To be fair, though, if they have a set number of pupils needed to make it worthwhile to run a club, I think it's OTT to be horrified about it.

But the club is run by the teacher who wanted it to continue.

Yeah, but the teacher may not be able to donate time? I don't know how it works in the OP's school - I just can see it might be a real practical difficulty rather than the head being draconian or homophobic.

Or they might have limited space, or whatever.

I'm just thinking aloud what might motivate the head to do this, and things do occur other than just meanness. The OP'll be in a stronger position if she can offer some possible way to get the club running again, I think?

sarah look at the op’s previous post...
She said that the decision did not come from her and that a number of pupils had been very upset by the decision and that she would urge me to contact the head to explain his reasons.

The only possible acceptable explanation would be that the volunteer teacher doing it no longer wanted to continue. This isn't the case, so I'm baffled.

The Head may want the teacher to be doing something else in that time. But I'd definitely question it, find out the actual official reason and then decide whether to take it further or not. It might be discriminatory. It might be resources being stretched too thin.

How old are the studets? Would they be old enough/mature enough to run it themselves as a mutual support group, or is it something that needs an adult present?

I saw, purple - but it might still be that the head wants the room in use for something else (and the teacher disagrees), or the head wants the teacher to do something else during that time, or something else that isn't, immediately, to do with just being nasty.

I absolutely think the OP should ask the reasons and, if possible, suggest they should be overcome. But I wouldn't go in all guns blazing to start with.

I have emailed the head simply asking for the reasons.

I’m guessing the head’s explanations will differ from your DD’s. I hope he can be persuaded to reinstate the group.

Well I just had a lengthy conversation with the head who called me! I'm not going to go into too many details here as I don't want the papers seeing it. Let's just say I don't agree with any of the reasons he gave and I was able to articulate good responses despite being caught completely off guard before I've even had my breakfast. We will be talking again next week.

Maybe the papers should see it, and the resulting attention/press would persuade the HT to reinstate it.