Telegraph: Teacher sacked for attempting to scupper trans candidate’s hopes of being head girl

[LazyViper]

Sorry it’s behind a paywall. Has anyone seen this story elsewhere?

” French teacher sacked after attempting to scupper transgender candidate’s hopes of being head girl

Susan Field told tutor group she felt pupil was not ‘representative’ of the student body and that role was not ‘appropriate’ for her”

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/28/french-teacher-sacked-attempting-scupper-transgender-candidates/

If you Google it, the findings of the public hearing are on the government website

A non-paywalled archived version: archive.fo/PuvlM

I agree with her that a trans girl shouldn't be elevated to head girl - having seen the absolute Horlicks that trans women who have become women's officers have made of representing women - but she did allow her students to say some pretty unpleasant things about trans people without pulling them up. It wasn't her finest hour.

Allowing her pupils to use hostile and derogatory comments about another pupil was completely unacceptable. You can think that a male child who has recently begun identifying as trans isn't the most representative of the girls in a school without using hostile and derogatory language about them.

During the investigation, she admitted telling her tutor group that it is "not appropriate for a member of the LGBTQI to represent Ash Manor School".

I wonder if this is exactly what she said, or whether she said it's not appropriate for a transgirl to be representing the girls. There is a tendancy to tag on to larger movements to lend some air of legitimacy.

Obviously there would be no reason why a lesbian wouldnt be able to be head girl. A lesbian is female after all.

This child however would not have a GRC, unlikely to have had puberty blockers: there would be no difference between them and any other male child in the school apart from possibly their clothing and their declaration of inner girl feelings.

I think it's really pretty crap that the girls should have to accept males in girls positions as

Sacked for telling the truth (that a boy should not represent girls).

It will never happen.

Thanks for the archive version @nauticant

Yes, she absolutely should have stopped disrespectful or abusive language being aired by the students.

It sounds as though the crux of their complaint was that she objected to a trans head girl for being unrepresentative of the female students, which was considered a viewpoint beyond the pale.

When I saw this yesterday I agreed that a trans girl shouldnt be 'head girl' because that is then taking that position from an actual girl.

However, reading a bit more about it, she allowed a lot of really derogatory stuff to be said about trans people, which does need to be dealt with. I feel like this was more than just 'gender critical views'.

I don’t think anything other than a permanent ban from the profession would be appropriate here.

At every school I’ve dealt with, the Head Girl has represented their school NOT their gender. It is also typically awarded based on academic and extra-curricular merit. Therefore I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

I find it strange that a teacher would discuss the merits of individual candidates putting themselves forward for election by students. Talking about what students should be looking for in a head girl yes, but discussing individual candidates is an absolute no. Quite unprofessional.

So you think a male born person should be head girl, acting alongside a male born person as head boy, @Cheshirewife? Do female born students have a say?

Of course a boy shouldn't be head girl! The male in question had only decided to say they were a girl at the beginning of the year. The girls must have been fuming.

And the comments might well have been inappropriate, but as correctly sexing the person in question could likely have been considered bigoted and transphobic, without further details, I'll reserve judgment.

I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

So you think that the position of 'head girl' should just be open to both boys and girls (same for 'head boy', presumably)?

Therefore I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

Do you also think a boy could take the role of head girl?

I don’t know. I tend to wonder if a girl that age describing a male schoolmate that age as “disgusting” might have some emotion other than transphobia underlying the description. There is certainly some personal history between the two colouring the remark.

That’s the only actual example given of “derogatory language” unless I’ve missed something? It does sound like the teacher was unprofessional though, she shouldn’t let a class sit around discussing a fellow pupil. I suspect a back story other than “transphobia” regarding the negativity that was apparently unleashed in the discussion, but we’ll never know.

@LazyViper the female students do have a say. Am I missing something? You put yourself forward as head girl, you are sweated by your peers. So if the other students didn’t want her to be heard girl, they wouldn’t vote for her.

Voted for not sweated 🙈

@Jorriss if the child identified as male then yes.

Head girl isn’t always chosen democratically, is it? I went to a crap comprehensive without such positions, but a couple of my friends at posher schools say it was the head’s choice.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006165/OFFICIAL_SENSITIVE_SoS_decision_Ms_Spare__18664__REDACTED_for_WEB_PDF.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjI5bXZ34fyAhWLD8AKHdJ5A7s4ChAWMAB6BAgDEAI&usg=AOvVaw1fwl7cGbllJnEFqCkCjvko" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006165/OFFICIAL_SENSITIVE_SoS_decision_Ms_Spare__18664__REDACTED_for_WEB_PDF.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjI5bXZ34fyAhWLD8AKHdJ5A7s4ChAWMAB6BAgDEAI&usg=AOvVaw1fwl7cGbllJnEFqCkCjvko

Therefore I fail to see any reason why a trans girl shouldn’t be head girl.

The reason why we have head girls as well as head boys is to ensure equal representation of male and female children. If two male children represent the school, there is no equal representation.

As for the teacher - I would like to see the exact wording of her remarks and those of the pupils. Generally speaking, in my view no teacher should be singling out any pupil in this manner, no matter what the occasion. The teacher could have had a conversation about equal representation of the sexes not being ensured if two male or two female individuals are chosen in a different manner.

It still would most likely have been obvious what prompted the conversation, but by keeping it general, the teacher could have easily stopped all remarks against the pupil in question as being inappropriate.

Teachers have a duty of care towards all children and on the face of that article, she failed in that duty.

Context is missing.
I’m wondering if the girls thought it was a terrible thing for a very recently transitioned pupil to take the position of head girl and were very angry about it so they used the word disgusting in regard to the situation and their opinion of the entitlement of the pupil to seek to represent them. Ie how would this pupil speak on the girls experiences of sexual harassment periods access to toilets etc ?

I think the teacher was in the wrong. Clearly there was some kind of voting taking place for both pupils and teachers so they were being given a choice. All she had to do was not vote for the pupil. No way should she be trying to influence a vote. And allowing derogatory comments to be made in a classroom is completely wrong.