School changing child's gender

[allmywhat]

A mother posted asking for advice on the legaladviceUK reddit after receiving this letter.

i.imgur.com/Oj9iT91.png

This is her explanation. It involves Mermaids training the school.

archive.is/6KY7X

She didn't get good advice because that subreddit is moderated by TRAs. The TRA mods tried to find evidence the letter was fake and they wound up deciding that it had not been photoshopped. Then, after calling Mermaids for advice on the situation, they locked and deleted the thread to stop the story spreading.

archive.is/d5nFU

I hope I'm doing the right thing by posting this. I'd hate for the mother and child in this case to get hunted down by the media. But I hope they can access some help.

Just to note that I do not know who they are, I just saw the posts. And although the letter doesn't seem to have been photoshopped, there is nothing stopping anyone from printing out a fake letter and scanning it. But it looks legitimate.

At face value that is awful and the letter looks legitimate.
If you could get in touch with the parent via Reddit then I'd direct her to Transgender Trend for advice.

Schools are being advised that they can change a child's sex without parental consent by almost all of the untrained in child safeguarding or consent adult trans lobby groups. To do this for a reception age child is unbelievably sinister and awful .

That is terrifying. Poor mum. Hope she finds her way here, where I am sure she will get more practical support than Reddit. I think you did the right thing in posting, but hear you on "unintended consequences" esp with the shit show that tends to surround transtuff in the media. If it is true, it is utterly gobsmacking that a teacher, has breached their position of trust in such a grotesque way, as to change the sex of a child on school records on absolutely no authority whatsoever. Not moral, not scientific, not ethical. Hope it is a fake.

That's so horrendous. What qualifies teachers to diagnose gender dysphoria?! A subject that trained medical professionals struggle with? As for the mods calling Mermaids and directing her back to them after she specifically mentioned that she had issue with them - well, I'm just horrified. How dare they? That poor woman. I hope you can contact her OP. If not I really really hope she finds Mumsnet ASAP. 💐

I will send her a message about MN and TT.

The post is a few days old and it seems to be a throwaway account (not a sign of trolling as it's normal for posts requesting advice) so she might never log in again to see any message. Worth a try though.

If you could get in touch with the parent via Reddit then I'd direct her to Transgender Trend for advice.

This and also direct her here to FWR.

The child is 5 so hopefully the parents can get help asap and put a stop to this.

Personally i'd withdraw my child from the school.

Funny isn't it - looking at that letter I think it must be fake news. Nobody would be so stupid and dangerous and unethical would they?And then I take a look at the Allsorts pack, the Cornwall and Scottish guidelines, GIRES training packs, all recommending that teachers can keep confidences about 'transition' for even very young primary children and some of them advising that schools can transition a child in confidence without telling parents (as a concerned parent is a transphobic parent) and I realise.... it may well be true

The advice from the mods is awful and chilling. No one to PM her, she must go back to mermaids, isolating her and sending her back to The people she claims are targeting her.

It's difficult to believe

I mean whether the letter is authentic or not, the advice is appalling.

We all need to ask schools how they would handle such a situation.

I did a FOI request to my LEA and they've never had mermaids in. They never will.

"Some people want girls to wear dresses.
Now people want dress wearers to be girls.
Both are wrong"

The letter has an address that seems to be in Manchester?

The Manchester local education authority uses the same trans inclusion toolkit as Brighton and Hove: www.theproudtrust.org/resources/research-and-guidance-by-other-organisations/trans-inclusion-schools-toolkit/

If you dig through it, it states that pupil records should be updated to their chosen gender, as well as mentioning earlier in the document that parents shouldn't even be informed in some cases about children transitioning at school.

The trans inclusion toolkit also has advice about how children should use the toilets / accommodation that aligns with their gender rather than their sex, and that gender critical transphobic parents just need re-educating and may be a safeguarding concern if they don't support transition.

I live in an area using the toolkit and frankly it's terrifying.

It is not clear but has the child even asked to be known as a boy or have the school decided she is dysphoric?

Terrifying for such a young child to be caught up like that.

given that we don't know the age of the child I would suspect they are older and have requested that there marker be changed on the register if they have capacity to do this then the school is obliged to change it. children under 18 do have capacity to make these decisions if parents agree or not. People may not like that fact but they do have there own rights prior to the age of 18. the school in this case is probably only upholding those rights.

Except that the post says the child is in reception, moving into year one.

Honestly Bespin - you don't half make yourself look dim sometimes

Or the school might be one with a strict dress code and there might be a girl who doesn’t want to wear a skirt & tights and not play football at break. The girl at my dd’s school who has had the most heartbreak is the very tall well muscled girl who played rugby with her brothers at a club until she was too old to play mixed rugby. Her parents didn’t have any problem with her being non GC but being in the wrong body was her solution, we need more visible butch lesbians and more women who don’t look as if they are going to cocktail parties on TV.

Bespin - schools have a primary duty to safeguard children. Changing a child's 'registered' sex without parental knowledge is a massive overreach and deciding that a school can remove parental rights / responsibilities like this is breathtakingly arrogant and puts a child at considerable risk of significant harm.
Like so many aspects of trans ideology, it is an adult view of confidentiality and privacy unthinkingly applied to children - and that is catastrophic for children's safety. Children are not mini adults - that's why the issue of capacity to consent is so important and nuanced in relation to children.
Schools deal with issues of confidentiality repeatedly and anyone insisting that a child can make this decision alone with no reference to their parents is professionally dangerous and should not be working with children and young people in a professional capacity. The only reason why this dangerous advice is even a thing is because parents don't have the financial resources to drag those advocating this to the Courts to establish case law.

I saw this referenced on Twitter last night, was that you, OP?

There's something about the word 'fortwith' that strikes me as fake. Like someone trying to make a letter sound official. Though I suppose there are people pompous enough to use it in a letter from a school to a parent.

Not convinced.

In this scenario, the marker being changed would surely be gender (do any schools still use sex?) because the whole ideology stands on sex and gender merging and one’s gender markers being changeable (and seen as indicating gender identity).
I mean, our LEA uses gender, the NHS uses gender where we are - the whole point is the prevalence of the idea that ‘gender’ can be changed.

if its reception then I suspect the other parent will have either consented or requested the change. possibly this parent does not agree with that though it does not require both parents to agree on such a change.

to be honest OrchidInTheSun making things personal makes you look like a bit dim too.

heaven forbid you think something might not be real on here Juells. I'm sure people will be along to tell you why you are wrong in a minute.

That letter is fake. I don't know of any schoolroom Local Authority that doesn't have official headed paper with all sorts of logos on it, this one is plain. It is signed 'school administrator', indicating that a school has sent it, yet has been sent from an 'education authority' in Manchester according to the address on the right. If it were from admissions, which is the LA department that would deal with registration matters, it would be signed by an 'admissions officer'.
As soon as I saw it I thought it was made up.

I'm appalled that the mods would contact Mermaids and then advise the mother to contact them.

@dreamingbe
The Manchester local education authority uses the same trans inclusion toolkit as Brighton and Hove
How do you know that? I work in a Manchester school and haven't been told that!