Another legal challenge in a school

[McDuffy]

School said boy, six, would be transphobic if he expressed confusion over classmate

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b1d3c552-8cec-11ec-87eb-ee84fabc72c9?shareToken=d3ade170b13d61b9d827b727ab8c5ab8

I have a 5yo and can empathise with these parents

Lying to a five year old avout sex will never end well. That goes fir both the kids involved.

Its the entire reason sex education was brought into schools because we know what happens when kids don't know

The letter from the school’s head teacher and the chairwoman of the governors warned that pupils would be viewed as transphobic if they demonstrated an “inability to believe a transgender person is actually a ‘real’ female or male”.

Does Maya Forstater's case set a precedent?

Gaslighting children. Un-fucking-believable

@JellySaurus

The letter from the school’s head teacher and the chairwoman of the governors warned that pupils would be viewed as transphobic if they demonstrated an “inability to believe a transgender person is actually a ‘real’ female or male”.

Does Maya Forstater's case set a precedent?

That statement is so ridiculous.

It's hard enough for adults to use the desired pronouns in the face of reality. Expecting a 5-year old to do the same is unbelievable.

It ought really to be classed as child abuse

The quotation mark is 'really' quite telling.

“inability to believe a transgender person is actually a ‘real’ female or male”.

All the media articles I've seen on this seem to be making a big deal of their evangelical Christian faith. It's clear they are trying to present them as fundamentalist nutjobs (especially by contrasting the 'mainstream' Christian CofE primary school as their opponent). But whenever you read what the parents themselves say there is very little about their faith; their case is mostly based on science and child development, views shared by a lot of people of all religions and none. It's such a petty attempt to discredit them by stoking religious intolerance.

It's outrageous. You'd have to take them to court for those letters, no question. It's always only considering the one child, isn't it? No regard for anyone else and how they deal with it. The gender-fluid child - boy one day, girl the next. Trousers & cars one day, sparkly skirts & dolls the next? But not based on gender stereotypes at all.

On a side note, the article says the parents are 'authorised' to teach their children at home. I thought anyone could do that and you don't have to seek permission.

@Nikki078: the trans person is really female or male. Just not necessarily the one they want you to think they are.

But whenever you read what the parents themselves say there is very little about their faith; their case is mostly based on science and child development, views shared by a lot of people of all religions and none. It's such a petty attempt to discredit them by stoking religious intolerance

And even if they believed TWAM because of their faith, belief is also a protected characteristic...

I also think that the focus on the parents being “evangelical Christians” is disingenuous and irrelevant. They clearly care about their child not being forced to lie. The school effectively wants their son to say that an apple is a banana or a cat is a dog, without blinking an eye. I too would remove my child if he or she was being compelled to tell a lie.

Gender identity is NOT a protected characteristic.

The school effectively wants their son to say that an apple is a banana or a cat is a dog, without blinking an eye. I too would remove my child if he or she was being compelled to tell a lie

Its just another example of the cognitive dissonance with the whole thing.

Schools on one hand pride themselves on instilling British values and community spirit etc that they hope they will carry with them for their whole lives.

But then they completely personalise this. Noe the whole thing about bullying one particular child with zero thought about the message they are sending out. And In 1 or 2 or 10 years time its not going to be the local.kid they grew up with. Its going to land them.in danger with someone else.

Children would also be regarded as transphobic if they exhibited “feelings of discomfort and inability to trust or connect with someone based on their transgender status”

Children are to be punished if they are unable to trust a man who says he's a woman or if they feel uncomfortable around him. (The man's feelings that he is a woman must be respected, of course.)

Are the people who say this stuff really so naive that they don't realise this is like hanging up an enormous sign saying 'predators welcome'?

This is the bit that makes me really mad:

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We recognise that issues relating to gender identity can be complex and sensitive. Schools are best placed to work with parents, pupils and public services to decide what is best for individual children and what is best for all others in the school.”

No, individual school leaders (who are busy dealing with a million things plus COVID) should not have to all separately develop their own transgender policy. That is (should be) the government's job.

I am fed up of governments and big organisations totally passing the buck on this issue and leaving it to small organisations and individuals to sort it and deal with the personal fallout.

@SchrodingersUnicorn

All the media articles I've seen on this seem to be making a big deal of their evangelical Christian faith. It's clear they are trying to present them as fundamentalist nutjobs (especially by contrasting the 'mainstream' Christian CofE primary school as their opponent). But whenever you read what the parents themselves say there is very little about their faith; their case is mostly based on science and child development, views shared by a lot of people of all religions and none. It's such a petty attempt to discredit them by stoking religious intolerance.

Don't forget, despite the trans community loving to slag them off, Mermaids aligned with evangelical Christians for an Oasis academy event.

Nice to see that they're not intolerant when it suits them, but perhaps they should be more vocal about condemning religious intolerance?

Those poor children. How can a 5yr old be encouraged they're the opposite sex - how damaging for their development, and of the other children in school.
Just, no. Abusive

It's also creating a society in which absolutely every single person the 6 year old "trans child" comes into contact with is telling them that they are the opposite sex. That makes it incredibly difficult for them to understand their life and to change their mind later on. Assuming the original 5 or 6 year old made the choice in the first place. It's totally fucked up.

At secondary and college level Ofsted are looking for work around consent, safeguarding, and VAWG. And yet there is this enormous cognitive dissonance that as soon as a child identifies as trans, they can be in the space of the 'gender they identify with.' It's all such bollocks. Does that child an enormous disservice, and all the others around them.

And the lying to small children is one of the worst aspects of it. Deliberately gaslighting and confusing them. It's brainwashing and if only the BBC et al would tell it like it is, it could bring this movement down. Very lax on the part of the media, to the point of being negligent. And yes the government need to take responsibility for this. The mess is going to take years to unravel.

Development of identity evolves alongside intellectual, emotional, and physical development, and shaped by experience of the world around them.
One's s x is immutable.
So many young children go through phases of feeling, quite adamantly, they are something else, and develop away from it quite naturally.
Schools and parents should not be going down this route. WTAF are they thinking?

Dept of Ed really need to get a very firm grip, as schools are being 'advised' by LGBTQ+ lobby groups.

As a result, the parents withdrew both their sons from the school and have recently been granted permission for a judicial challenge to the Department for Education’s decision to disseminate the guidelines to state schools.

Don't the Cornwall schools guidelines go against the DfE's own current guidance?

Hasn't the schools guidance on trans policy in a few counties been successfully challenged by SSA? I'm sure Oxfordshire's has.

@FrancescaContini

Gaslighting children. Un-fucking-believable

This, it's beyond the pale outrageous

A member of the school’s staff went to their home to shout abuse? But, ‘be kind’ though eh? Ffs

DofE guidance makes it clear what the protected characteristics are. Gender reassignment IS a protected characteristic (but I have no clue what this means ) whereas gender identity ISN’T.

Thanks to the disingenuous meddling by Stonewall, many schools and other institutions have been led to believe that gender identity () IS a PC. It’s a shitshow.

All parents can check their children’s school’s paperwork to see if they’ve got it right. If it’s wrong, the school and LEA need to know.