The school has failed the girls in their first duty to them - to do what is in the best interest of all the children in their charge.
One may argue that it could be in the best interest of this boy to be put amongst the girls (as affirmation and validation of his feelings and most likely also in order to avoid being teased or bullied by the other members of his own sex).
But I would like to see even an attempt at an explanation as to how the proposed solution to this boy's problem is in the best interest of the girls.
What is recognised as being in the best interest of girls is to learn that they are allowed to assert boundaries around their own bodies against all members of the opposite sex.
And that this right is respected by the school, and not to be negotiated or coerced away for the sole benefit of select members of the opposite sex. Regardless of the intentions of the male in question.
And that no school ever puts girls into the position where they are forced to disagree with teachers who tell them they should accept a violation of their rights for the benefit of a male in order to be kind.
This isn't about accepting him into a girls' playground game.
They are asked to strip naked in front of a boy, who gets to maintain his privacy, and told this is out of kindness to him.
The school's communication of the necessity of extending a kindness to this boy without any thought given to extending the same kindness to the girls, may become a pivotal factor in their understanding of their position in society.
If the school had set out to teach all of the children in this class who matters and who doesn't, they couldn't have done a better job.
It's difficult even for confident older girls to single themselves out by disagreeing with something a teacher tells them they should do to be kind to another pupil. Even more difficult for eight year olds. So creating a situation where a girl has to declare herself to be unkind in order to assert her right to privacy, is in my view, an abusive, harmful practice and a complete dereliction of duty on the part of the school.
For a girl who has been sexually abused, this all but impossible, because the stakes are even higher for her. If she discloses the abuse so that she can escape this situation without being seen as unkind, she may suffer consequences too frightening to contemplate, especially if the abuse is ongoing.
If she has never learned that she has a right to assert boundaries around her own body, this practice will have a far more lasting impact on her than any school lessons about boundaries.
That the damage done to girls by practices like this has never even been considered before they were adopted in our schools, is quite clear from the way this has been framed. And utterly utterly depressing.