School newsletter tells girls how to bind

[ErrolTheDragon]

There's a piece in the Times today ... parents not happy at the content of a newsletter produced by the 6th formers

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nonsuch-high-school-sixth-formers-told-girls-11-how-to-bind-breasts-k7slvrbkr?shareToken=a84af706d3b638e2ea3d2d53ea04e29d

Guardian May 2018
'Schools pulled into row over helping transgender children'
(extract)
"Adele Robinson (not her real name), a head of year at a secondary school, shares Davies-Arai’s worries. The school has had 12 children, all girls, come out as transgender in the past 18 months. The majority, she says, have autism, and some have experienced sexual abuse.

When they come out, she says, they have brought in information sourced from Tumblr blogs and YouTube videos. Although her team does its best to “support every child in a loving, kind and compassionate way”, she feels that staff are too frightened to challenge what she sees as harmful practices: “We have chest binders worn in school, which is horrible. If a child was cutting, they would be straight in with a counsellor. Yet damaging developing breast tissue goes unquestioned. It’s a gross failure in terms of child protection.” (continues)
www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/15/transgender-row-teachers-afraid-challenge-breast-binding

Choosing a school is a frigging nightmare. I never want to do it again and yes, reputation is a fragile thing and, if it's trashed, everyone loses. So I always sympathise with a parent wanting to defend their child's school, especially if the child is thriving there. But if they screw up on safguarding - and it sounds like they have - then they need their arses kicking. The end.

There are posters on this thread who really know their stuff. I know who I'd listen to.

Do people think parents first action is to go to the press? Normally parents do that when they have exhausted all other avenues or if they feel they not be taken seriously. Or worse feel their child will suffer. Good schools who make mistakes are unlikely to be featured in the national press. Schools with systematic SG failures may well be.

I realise that this isn't the point of the thread but, while we're here:
@spoonrider Are you and other transgender people and allies under some sort of legal obligation to use the terms "y'all" and "folk"?

@spoonrider

Also, can you all learn to quote? I’m drunk and have been smoking weed all afternoon and even I can do that.

Maybe you should watch Netflix or have a nice nap rather than entering into discussions about educational safeguarding. A topic best tackled sober I would have thought.

@HecatesCatsInFancyHats

Ouch. Section 28 anyone?

Do you have any knowledge of queer theory? This isn't about homosexuality it's about queering language and meaning. It's about erasing boundaries and established norms. Go away and do a bit of reading before you hurl yourself drunk onto an FWR thread.

Seconded. Being a lesbian teacher working in schools throughout Section 28 (and teaching SRE), the tedious attempts to make parallels with what is happening to vulnerable children deciding they've been born in the wrong body is deeply offensive.

[quote 2fallsagain]@Quartz2208 what this has done is shed light on their piss poor safeguarding. I can bet this isn't the first issue the school has had to deal with on this. [/quote]
Well according to @SplodgeWaddler they previously had to fire a headmaster for texting a sixth former. Clearly the school has zero concept of safeguarding.

The fish usually rots from the head.

I was a prefect, had a badge and everything.

I'm guessing it was supposed to be some sort of insult, but in a "you're so funny when you're drunk or stoned" way, which only works when your audience is drunk or stoned.

[quote 2fallsagain]@Quartz2208 what this has done is shed light on their piss poor safeguarding. I can bet this isn't the first issue the school has had to deal with on this. [/quote]
Looks like you're right.

Quote from the comments on the article.

My daughter goes to this school. I had no idea about this breast binding article. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. I complained to the school last year when the student newsletter recommended that students contact Mermaids for information. The teacher, who responded said that she'd checked with the borough's safeguarding lead and they said Mermaids was ok, because Stonewall and the NHS endorsed them (ha ha). I pointed her in the direction of law suits against the Tavistick clinic.

Yeah I'm not sure what the prefect statement was about either Toffee.
I went to a comprehensive in the East End of London where prefects didn't exist yet both of us still think humans can't change sex.

But if they screw up on safguarding - and it sounds like they have - then they need their arses kicking. The end.

100 times this.

Can you imagine what would happen if sixth formers were sending out copies of 50 shades off grey, or readers wives to the 11 year olds? All under the guise of ‘education’ of course.

@spoonrider

Also, can you all learn to quote? I’m drunk and have been smoking weed all afternoon and even I can do that.

And you're here to lecture us on safeguarding children and young people. Fab.

Being a lesbian teacher working in schools throughout Section 28 (and teaching SRE), the tedious attempts to make parallels with what is happening to vulnerable children deciding they've been born in the wrong body is deeply offensive.

Persistent

Can you imagine what would happen if sixth formers were sending out copies of 50 shades off grey, or readers wives to the 11 year olds? All under the guise of ‘education’ of course.

😆 I have to say, this really made me chuckle ... and reminds me of a story I was told by one of my female relatives who was involved in distributing of a copy of Lady Chatterly’s Lover to the local boys school 😄

I remember in primary 5 when the class bad lad brought in a copy of Page 3! It was the talk of the school....

toffeebutterpopcorn 😆😂🤣😂🤣

15 years ago this was not a thing. Probably 10 even. So what changed? Why are there not middle aged women doing this? If all of a sudden girls and women know more about their gender and it is more safe to do this, why is it only kids? Where are all the middle aged women who can finally be themselves?

When I was in year 11 (age 15 to 16), a friend's mother raised the issue of the school participating in the Sun newspaper's tokens for schools scheme, on account of page 3, and its objectification of women.

As I remember, our main tutor (when we asked) indicated that she was broadly sympathetic to this point of view, and said she didn't want us to feel obliged to start buying the Sun over another paper, for the school. Just to cut out and grab the tokens if someone in the family already bought it.

Our school (like many others) wasn't in the financial position to make a stand for women and girls and snub the Sun's school token scheme, though.

Bloody hell! I had to google breast binding as had never heard of it! Absolutely awful, as if an 11 needs to know about such things, or an 18 year old for that matter.....

Full horror documented here

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2021/05/09/breast-binding-at-nonsuch-high/

I must say I have never heard the term 'omnisexuality' until reading that newsletter. No wonder they didn't sent it out to parents - we really can't keep up. It's like a new word a week...

All this blether upthread about '"Friends of Dorothy" meaning gay men, why call it that? how weird' obscures something that ought to be obvious. Judy Garland famously had corsetry and her breasts bound flat with tape to film TWOO.

Can anyone confirm that the newsletter was not titled FoD previously? Seems like more than coincidence.