Interesting school toilets story

[FlorenceLyons]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-43462823

Interesting on a number of levels, I think. The school had originally said a transgender child (a boy identifying as a girl) couldn't use the girls' toilets 'out of respect' - presumably for the girls.

An organisation called Transpire then got involved. Their spokesperson is quoted as saying "I find it quite amazing some schools are branding it respect when in fact it is segregation ... It's about giving people the opportunity to use the toilet they are comfortable with, not what the school is comfortable with."

The school capitulated, with the head saying "because of what the school stands for and the rights written into equality law, the school made the decision to allow transgender students to use a toilet that matches their identified gender".

This begs so many questions, doesn't it? Why is 'respect' being posited as the opposite of 'segregation'? Surely segregation by sex is partly about respecting the needs of people, particularly women, to single-sex spaces? Why does the comfort of one child trump the comfort of many children? And why is equality law being used to justify this, when we know it says no such thing?

Fekko that's what our school has done - there are girls toilets, boys toilets, and one of the staff toilets has become a gender neutral toilet. There's one trans child that I know of at the school (DDs year group had an assembly which basically boiled down to X student is now known as Y, and no-one is to bully or take the piss), any everyone seems to be being pretty considerate about the whole situation.

Really sinister the way this is being- literally- policed. The police don't seem to understand equality law or - more worryingly - hate crime.

The police don't seem to understand equality law or - more worryingly - hate crime.

That's because the adviser, mentioned in the OP, IS the police.

mobile.twitter.com/confirmedturf/status/975830639453921281

XX that's because they are being trained by Mermaids

Bloody hell. It's worse than I thought.

Exactly. A Trans pressure group advises the police with a transwoman police officer on board. The school decided not to go with the trans pressure group advice, so the police ally enforced it.

Unless I'm missing something?

Would there be any link with this and Posie and the West Yorkshire Police?

This is getting quite sinister.

So in effect when it comes to the rights of women and girls we are living in a police state.

Handmaiden's Tale much?

It's fine if you live in an African country though. Your rights as a girl to segregated toilets in education is essential says UNESCO.

Mind you once you get educated and a reasonable sense of economic security we will take those rights away from you.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/single-sex-toilets-unesco-un-international-womens-day-period-a8244776.html

Apologies, I'm going to shout now:

THIS SCHOOL IS BREACHING THE STATUTORY REGULATIONS THAT APPLY TO SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND

The details are in this link but in essence, the school standards are very clear that different, secure toilet and changing facilities MUST be provided for boys and girls over the age of 8. AND the standards are clear that they mean sex, not gender, segregation.

The school standards form the basis of the Ofsted inspection framework, and schools can be put into special measures as a result of egregious breaches.

So yet again, there is a perfectly good legal framework to provide girls with safety and dignity, but it is being disregarded on the basis of some men shouting really loudly.

Is there anyone up for challenging this?
All this would take is writing to the school to ask them for details of the impact assessment they undertook before changing their policy. Upon receipt of your email, they have 20 working days to respond.
Once you receive the response, you can decide whether there is evidence that there is no negative impact, negative impact or insufficient evidence and take steps accordingly.
I would be very surprised if any meaningful impact assessment has been undertaken. If this is the case, the FOI request should trigger some more thinking about how to meet everyones needs/rights!

I hear you @OlennasWimple. We are singing from the same song sheet.
I work in lots of schools, all of which are really keen to be inclusive and to do the right thing. In aspects that fall outside of their expertise, they do tend to be overly trusting of so called 'experts'.

Is there anyone up for challenging this?

Ideally someone local to the school..?

How can people not see this. Middle-aged late transitioning men making schools dispense with sex segregation.

Teaching girls to disregard their boundaries.

What about girls who for religious or cultural reasons will simply not be able to remove clothing in any environment where there might be boys present? How about their right to feel safe and comfortable and respected?

I've already heard of girls in my borough who are going all day without drinking anything because they can't face using the school toilets due to perving, leering and camera phones appearing under cubicle doors

I think the expression is 'tough shit - and shut up'.

But of course the rallying cry from TRAs will be this is just one example. My response is one example is one too many. And my question then would be how many examples does it take to make it an issue? because I know you are using this tactic to shut down debate

Totally shocked!

No wonder the school backed down so quickly. How on earth can self interested police officers be allowed to 'police ' this issue - especially as it appears that their views are misrepresenting the law!

There are threats and there are 'police threats'

There has been a lot of over-reaching of powers and mis-interpreting of the law by police recently.

There's this with clear conflict of interest of the individual police officer, the police officer friend of Susie from Mermaids seemingly on a personal crusade to harass the woman who stated the truth about castration on Twitter, and the Met had to rewrite their website about hate crime after a barrister pointed out there was no such thing as a thought-crime under E&W law (I imagine also Scots / NI too).

This is just like girl guides, a misunderstanding of exemptions. A child cannot have a GRC so a male transgirl is legally male, and is protected by gender reassignment but not by sex (as in female).

And it doesn't seem a PROPORTIONATE means of achieving a legitimate aim. Here's the fair play guidance on single sex spaces fairplayforwomen.com/equality-act-2010_womens-rights/#jump1

And I'm with you Datun, I'm starting to find it increasingly creepy that middle aged male strangers have so much sway with other people's kids.

Is this where we all pile in and message, call, email and tweet the school (and the police force?) and let them know about the exemptions in the equality act?

And this reminds me of a friend of mine who finally escaped a brutally violent marriage - her husband was a senior police officer. As she said, 'who do you call when your husband IS the police?' Surely there is a clear ethical conflict of interest in this instance as well?

And I missed my main point - that these examples of misuse of police power has the connecting thread of being linked to transgender rights. It's all feeling a little bit like the Masons...

I taught in a school in six years ago where there was a child under the age of 10 transitioning. The parents were very clear to the school that they must support their child, who ended one year as a boy and stated the next as a girl. This child was referred to as their new pronoun by every one and was assigned a toilet cubicle in the oldest year groups female toilets. These year six girls were uncomfortable because a fair few of them were hitting puberty and this child often used the toilets when the girls were changing for pe. At least two girls had started their periods and were also uncomfortable. These girls were ignored, even back then, in favour of this one child. I remember thinking how very strange it was that this school, very traditional, very old fashioned (to the point where parents of boys were heavily leaned on to cut their child’s hair if it was deemed too long and staff members couldn’t dye their hair at all or women where trousers) capitulated to these demands. There must be some pretty heavy legislature around it?

I certainly think it is reasonable to ask the local police force - Essex? why one of their officers is 'misrepresenting' the law to a school and to ask whether there is a conflict of interest between their personal predilections and their work as a police officer.