Child in my class is trans

[theresheis]

Looking for some advice. I'm a long time lurker and whilst I have read lots of the posts surrounding the issues of trans rights and consider myself firmly in the gender critical camp I am not fully up to speed with the current legal situation surrounding the trans debate.

I am a primary school teacher and I teach eight-year-olds. I have a boy in my class who at home is going by a girl's name, using female pronouns and wearing girl's clothes. This has not happened at all in school and he has not spoken to his peers about this. His mum spoke to me recently and said she had taken him to the GP. She is supporting him but seems to be not overly pushing it. She is a single mum and she is somebody who I would describe as vulnerable.

His mum now has another GP appointment next week without the boy. I am wondering whether the GP is likely to signpost a charity which will advocate a transition?

I would like to know where I stand as his class teacher if it comes to it am I required to call him she/her etc?

I would say that none of the staff in the school would be aware that all of these issues and broadly would support his transition.

I have told the head that I am not prepared to tell the rest of the class that he has become a girl or ever was a girl. He looked pretty shocked and said he would go away and research this issue. Where could I suggest he looks?

Sorry quite a long post! Hope I've posted in relevant section.

And as it stands the Tavistock is the only NHS Clinic in the UK for Gender Dysphoric children & are even more cautious & conservative (some might say backwards & more clinics needed) and are not currently in line with international accepted standards, as would be the norm in any other paediatric specialisation. So people have little to fear from the professional treatment of Gender Dysphoric children period.

Can someone please point me to the peer reviewed study that says there are absolutely no long term side effects of puberty blockers? And no, not when they are taken by preteens to prevent precocious puberty, I mean delaying puberty in teenagers. Thanks!

Kids Company did great work? Shame about the following:

On 30 July 2015, the Metropolitan Police announced an investigation into the charity by the complex case team of its sexual offences, exploitation, and child abuse command. The alleged abuse was between clients and did not involve staff. The investigation involved allegations of child sexual abuse relating to the period from 2008 to 2012.

And

In March 2014, an audit of the charity carried out on behalf of the Charity Commission found that Kids Company had a "serious cash-flow" problem and noted that "without improving the cash position of the charity it is not possible to build reserves and invest in new activities and locations".[42] The Financial Times has said that the charity "operated on a financial knife-edge".[43] Over a three-year period, two of the charity's finance directors resigned because they felt that the charity's trustees failed to respond to the warnings that it needed to build its financial reserves.[42] There have also been allegations by former Kids Company employees of extravagance and waste in the management of the charity's financial resources.

And

In October 2015, Batmanghelidjh blamed the media and a civil service-led smear campaign for the demise of her charity and its "exceptional value". She later admitted that she had used what she called "loving blackmail" on politicians to obtain funding

And

In November 2015, the Public Accounts Committee described the organisation as a failed "13 year experiment" and criticised both the Labour and Conservative governments for continuing to give public money against civil service advice. They also said that it was given more than major national charities receiving favourable treatment only because it was London-based. In fact it operated mainly in "just two London boroughs.

This is just FINE!!!!

[shudders]

I'm also interested in the evidence that puberty blockers can be started and then stopped again with absolutely no adverse consequences, as if pausing a DVD and then pressing play again.

I've been looking for it for a very long time, so I'm excited that Samantha is going to end my search and link to something on here. Yay!

Highly regarded peer reviewed publication (than obscure ones debunked the the international medical community) I´d have a look at all the citations, which point to more specialised studied in verious specific areas.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4955762/

Guess which one I be contacting my local educational dept about about supporting 👇🏻

schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Transgender-Trend-Resource-Pack-for-Schools.pdf

Dr in da house

SamanthaHamer

Why are you so keen to sterilise gay and gender non conforming young people?

From the paper you linked to:
It is important that families receive counseling regarding the fertility effects of GnRH agonists and cross-sex hormones. A child who starts on GnRH agonist therapy at SMR stage 2 and continues on the mediation as cross-sex hormones are introduced later in adolescence will never have spermatogenesis or menarche, and will not have the opportunity to bank gametes using cryopreservation.

Also from the paper you linked to Samantha:

The use of any GnRH agonist preparation for pubertal suppression in transgender adolescents is considered “off-label” in the US. The Food and Drug Administration has not listed gender dysphoria as a clinical indication for their use, despite the fact that this is current standard of care.

This confirms that proper studies have not been carried out regarding the use of puberty blocking drugs in adolescents.

So I know which I would choose highly regarded & highly trained medical internationally renowned medical professional & scientist in the field that inform & constantly review the international standards of practice & standards of care for gender dysphoric children, which Mermaids also abides by, verses people making stuff up due to their extreme religious &/or extreme far right political beliefs, or both.Verses established facts & science.
👇🏻
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4955762/
www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/

highly regarded & highly trained medical internationally renowned medical professional & scientist in the field that inform & constantly review the international standards of practice & standards of care for gender dysphoric children,

But who have only published one paper, which has the drawbacks noted by OldCrone?

If you referrer to citation 12, which gives details to the Endocrine society paper, it does not indicate studies have not been done but the inverse. It is not uncommon in many areas for specialisation areas to have done their own studies & are well withing normal practice for an incredible amount of medical conditions, where population number are small, ergo conditions are more rare, to have no choice but to going down this route. Mermaids would be able to give you a lot better an specific information on this than me, due to their own expertise on current international standards, medical practice etc, etc, what they are their for as a charity, to properly inform people, than make stuff up.

Puberty blockers in children means giving them Lupron, right?

Off topic slightly, but @theresheis , may I ask what it is that makes you think of the Mum as vulnerable? Just out of curiosity?

I ask, as your wording struck me as though her being a lone parent contributed significantly towards your judgement of her as being vulnerable??

people making stuff up due to their extreme religious &/or extreme far right political beliefs

My politics are definitely on the left, and I'm an atheist, so I'm sure we can discuss this in a civil manner.

You seem to subscribe to a very regressive ideology, Samantha, which reinforces rigid gender stereotypes. Why are you so keen to medicate young people who reject those stereotypes and are possibly gay? Perhaps you should try dealing with your own homophobia before you criticise others.

I haven't made stuff up, Samantha, I've simply quoted from the paper which you linked to.

In relation to the citation 12 the Endocrine society paper, they will have in of themselves incredibly good knowledge of the effects of the medications as they are often used on child cancer patients, whose the type of cancer is linked to the endocrine system also (so developmental growth/changes do not help the cancer to treat it better) & where it would be normally licenses (not sure of UK licensing Status), and of course additional studies are completely different from licensing.

Just to say I have nothing against religion at all, I was raised by very Christian Parents, myself now Buddhist, I just dont agree when people use religion as an excuse to deliberately negatively impact on peoples lives´& break the fair law put in place for a reason, etc, etc

Their are various medication per the paper I posted & can be selected to be sympathetic to any co-morbid medical conditions etc. Ergo their are plenty of option to be able to alter medication if needed, as we see in most all other areas of medicine.

I always admire women who are just so tactful and can get their point across with such tender delicacy that you don't even realize they had just shared a very hard cold truth.

Can someone please figure out what a teacher in this situation could say to the OTHER children, about consent and appropriate boundaries and most importantly, a tactful way to get across the idea that EVERYONE is allowed to speak out when something makes them uncomfortable? Girls are just inundated with the idea that it's "mean" to make anybody else feel awkward, so it takes decades in many cases before a female learns how to identify/set/reinforce boundaries, if ever.

I'd love if every girl who felt uncomfortable with a penis in their bathrooms felt empowered to speak up. What can the OP say, perhaps during some other study lesson, to get that point across to the kids? Cos all they're hearing now is "okay class Johnny feels sad and might kill himself someday if we don't participate in his fantasy and coddle his every whim". These kids desperately need to hear that it's okay to admit being uncomfortable.

Equally due to thins medication only being prescribed by highly specialised medical professional they will logically monitor & intervene if necessary & stop medication if any medication & equally provided specialist direction to local GP´s/Endocrinology Departments, its also the very why we desperately need more Gender Indentiy Clincis in the UK, to take the pressure of local services having to pick up the slack.

anyone get the feeling Samantha not even a mumsnetter fan anyway?

Walks like 🦆 talks like a 🦆

Although models in other countries have better Gender identity services, have many satellite clinics & have better training for GP´s and Specialist at a local level. If resourced & managed effectively it works so much better and is more cost effective.

It´s equally right, mature & responsible as a parent, teacher etc, etc to debunk unfounded fears (which can actually lead to hate, bullying & worse, if promoted. As fear is hates fuel), equally if those unfounded fears are deliberately being whipped up by people with disingenuous motives.