"Nearly one in every 15 pupils at a leading secondary school identify as trans or non-binary - with majority declaring their gender change after lockdown last summer"

[ResisterRex]

In the Mail

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10746771/Nearly-one-15-pupils-leading-secondary-school-identify-trans-non-binary.html

• More than 60 have declared their gender to be different from their birth sex
• A teacher said the pupils were aged between 11 and 18 and almost all were girls
• They added staff were ‘blundering in the dark’ without government guidance

"The majority have done so since most Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted last summer, raising concern about the impact of online trans ‘influencers’ on youngsters who were largely confined to their homes for months."

"Fearful of criticism or censure, she claimed many colleagues feel obliged to accept the situation even when they have concerns about a student’s mental health or that they may be subject to peer pressure.
The revelation comes days after Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said officials were drawing up ‘clear’ guidance on how teachers should deal with trans pupils."

Miriam Cates is quoted and the school in question, is anonymous.

This could easily be my sons school. So many Of the girls are now non-binary or queer in his year ( year7)
it’s a bit of a trend.

I’d be interested to see if this was the case in 5 years time.

I think a lot of them believe they should feel a certain way about sex and they don’t feel that way.

A lot of girls are just avoiding being woman and therefore being permanently sexually available.

A lot of boys are scared by the violence they are meant to personify.

i believe that this is just one of the awful things that pornography and the hypersexualisation of our society is doing to our children.

It's rife at my kid's (girls grammar) school. Lots of references to 'boys' in the years above and him/his pronouns being used.

My kid now has an online him/his persona and dire mental health so I'll be asking the school whether they have developed any policies around this.

Thanks to Mumsnet despite me being an open minded liberal who just wants everyone to be happy I'll not be rushing into encouraging a gender switch in case it is today's go-to reaction to standard adolescent angst.

She is my local MP and I know which school she'll be referencing. I could also tell you which teachers are spearheading and encouraging these young (mostly) girls 😡

The trans propaganda has been though the roof in the couple of years and peer dynamics means that lots of gullible identity seeking young teens jump on the rainbow bandwagon. I wonder what kids will move onto in 5 years time?

I’m a teacher in a secondary school. I’d like to assure you all that the vast majority of us can see what is happening. My hope is that, as it becomes a ‘Year 7’ thing, it will become uncool and the older children will distance themselves from it, and find new ways of expressing themselves.

Round us, over the last 15 years or so, schools have been caught in waves of either anorexia / bulimia, or self harm (cutting), as such behaviour appeared to be ‘catching’. Trans / non binary seems to be the latest incarnation.

We need to look closely at what is happening to our young people.

Meanwhile, what is a ‘leading’ secondary school?

This is interesting. I have wondered if it needs to fall out of fashion - or if it naturally will as many things do if they end up feeling like a fad.

But what will replace it?

Online influence plays a massive part. My 17 year old ASD daughter spends a lot of time socialising on line. From the age of 14 she began asking about surgical operations to remove her uterus as she hated having periods. She also asked about binders to flatten her chest. She was and is still adamant that she will never want to have children. I've always replied that how she's feeling at a particular time will not necessarily still feel the same when she's 18, 21, 25. We've had a lot of difficult conversations but although she hasn't said it I think she is glad that we didn't facilitate her requests when she was 14.

She is quite secretive about her groups. They're chat rooms on discord and from what I've seen attract similar young, marginalised, troubled, often autistic girls. My daughter's interests from about 12 was fanfiction and animation and so was drawn in to online groups. They are moderated but obviously it's these moderator's ideology that sets the agenda and the rules.

She has been heavily influenced by these groups and considers her online friends to be like a family. I found it very difficult when she was younger to protect her and had many disagreements surrounding online safety. I sought advice from our local ASD/ADHD support services. Their advice was to let her be part of the groups as she was seeking out her tribe and using them to find herself. I understood but at the same time felt uneasy. It's not like the real world where we could meet her friends and get some idea of who they are. It has been a tricky few years and still is at times.

@ResisterRex I deliberately didn’t go there 🤣

On a slightly different note, not just gender non-conforming kids who are (in some cases) having surgery. Lots of ex-students of mine are having Turkey teeth surgery/nose jobs/cosmetic procedures. It may seem less ‘drastic’ but it’s two sides of the same coin. Children want to alter themselves because of social media.

I’m not remotely surprised that if a young girl is told she must have a ‘female gender identity’ to be a girl, and she can’t work out WTF that is, she then thinks ‘I must be a boy or nonbinary then.’

In one sense it's the end of this as there'll be a new "fad" coming along soon.
Tragically there are numerous vulnerable children who will remain caught up in this and start going down the more extreme drugs and surgery route.

My youngest DD is going through the same phase. She’s had her hair cut short which actually looks lovely but wears ridiculously baggy men’s clothes and has started putting on a bit of a butch persona….this has all come as a shock to me. She is also vulnerable and has some mild learning difficulties.

I think in some way, it’s a backlash to how boys can be.

For contrast, I have long suspected that my eldest may be a lesbian. She dresses very femininely, you’d never know just by looking at her.

How do you feel now about that advice from the asd support services, mrshoho?

I have a late primary autistic child and am really concerned about the "capture" of autistic support groups and online groups who seem to have moved towards autism being cast as an identity (rather than a definable way that someone's brain may work) and embracing self-discovery of identity (including "gender") as an all encompassing and central aim of life.

Finding your tribe is important, but that doesn't mean you can't be sucked into tribes spouting dangerous ideas, especially if these are young people talking online. I am not sure what the answer is, but in my mind it definitely involves finding your tribe in person, not online.

I'm surprised it's not higher. My daughter's school is unfortunately a Stonewall champion and the numbers are quite high for girls questioning their gender. She estimates that 1 in 3 in her form would say they aren't "cis."

Totally.

Are you parents talking about it? Have you expressed your concerns to the governors?

They're chat rooms on discord and from what I've seen attract similar young, marginalised, troubled, often autistic girls

As for those of you mentioning online families, this is the constant refrain of every set of friends that I know who now have children caught up in this. Their YT and Discord families have isolated them from the ones who are in the same house as them and actively encourage that isolation alongside dependence on the virtual family. All of whom are unknown and could be anyone, anywhere, with any agenda.

Discord comes up in every single safeguarding talk I've been to with the police (our school hosts some talks). They've been worried about that platform for years and years.

My nephew says that so many at his primary school are now trans.

Is it social contagion or girls trying to opt out of womanhood (I would have done so too, I hated the changes to my body and the changes in other people’s perceptions of me as a result)? Or both.

I hope they get time to reflect and are not rushed into anything.

This would be a good opportunity fir schools to go back to being old school.

Libraries. Homework planners. Remove the need for homework apps and smart phones.

Help get the kids offline. And learning to be nore self sufficient with their time planning and assignment planning and travel etc

As a student in the eighties I cut my hair short and wore shapeless, neutral coloured clothes to stop unwanted male attention. I hated being female because it made me feel unsafe and I also could see it was a disadvantage, hard to be taken seriously etc. I used to think 'I just want to be a person'.

It never crossed my mind to want to change my gender. It just wasn't a conversation I ever heard. In time I found strong female role models, became proud to be a woman and found my way through life.

I feel very sorry for young people today, sexual politics feels brutal and I can easily understand why teenage self-loathing might lead teens (especially girls) to want to change gender. I'm very glad I didn't have the option to make irreversible physical changes during a confusing and vulnerable time in my life.

Finding your tribe is important, but that doesn't mean you can't be sucked into tribes spouting dangerous ideas, especially if these are young people talking online. I am not sure what the answer is, but in my mind it definitely involves finding your tribe in person, not online.

I agree @MaloMoose. We tried very hard to steer her towards other real life interests but she gradually became more withdrawn from everything other than her online world. She's slightly more outgoing since starting her new sixth form. For us the online groups have been a double edged sword as she has somewhere and people to chill with. She went through a period of self harm and anxiety attacks and the groups was where she felt safe and calm. At the same time though I can see how these troubled kids can be manipulated and heavily influenced. The advice from our ASD support services helped to have a more harmonious home life whilst maintaining some boundaries and control. It's not perfect and I worry constantly.

My DD is year 11 and very much believes TWAW and she and classmates are campaigning fir gender neutral toilets at school. When I suggested that the term non binary (in my opinion) almost reinforces stereotypes that boys/girls have to look/think/speak/behave or just "be" a certain way, she is very dismissive and tells me we can't possibly know how they feel. (Which obviously is true)

I almost feel that it's a step backwards that all the gender stereotypes that previous generations have tried to break down, are almost being re-introduced.

Considering that it was once believed that 1 in 100,000 were transsexual (although we're dealing with the ambiguous term "trans") I doubt a number exists on the probability of there being 60 children in one school being trans.