Times: Girl ‘driven out of school for questioning trans ideology’

[ResisterRex]

This seems to be a clear failure on the part of all adults involved, if what's reported here is accurate:

Girl ‘driven out of school for questioning trans ideology’

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/50aac934-d539-11ec-8585-951ab3afb4d2?shareToken=d55c6d8482ff6dde48eb9c33de693f54

Yes and virtually every single comment in support of the girl.

Yes it's quite astonishing that according to the Times up to 60 girls have no critical thinking skills despite all that expensive education!

It's bad that parents get suckered into paying big money to send their daughters there (though to be honest I am not sure a state school would have responded to this any better).

Not sure why MN deleted my previous post as it linked to the same article that the Times article links to...and I am sure the name of the teacher has been changed!

I'm sure I have read and briefly commented on this story, which probably means MN. There was something about the Head of Year reading out a statement apologising for not being inclusive...? The male teacher recounting this said one of the main instigators of the pile on later expressed regret. I think the GC girl had previously struggled with anorexia. Brave girl, I hope she's doing okay.

Poor girl. It's shocking the school didn't protect her better. Although in general I think people are often too quick to run to lawyers I would certainly be having a word if this was my child, mainly to protect other children from such treatment. And to challenge the ideology.

This is an outrageous abuse of the girl. She has a right to be in school. Where is Ofsted in this?

Simon Clarke MP:

https://twitter.com/SimonClarkeMP/status/1526469679723716609

"Biological sex is real and stories like the one below are deeply concerning. Coming hard on the heels of the aggressive intolerance displayed at the Pankhurst statue, it is time to draw up a line in defence of both free speech and the rights of women."

He's also Chief Secretary to the Treasury, indicating that this story has reached at least one part of the heart of government.

Its this, isn't it.

I remember an incident of mob bullying at my secondary school. Two boys were chased, jeered and pushed around the playground by a crowd of other boys for some misdemeanour. The teachers did not turn a blind eye. They were horrified.

What happened to this 18-year-old sounds much worse, and the bullies should have been punished severely. As for the Head of Year’s apparent apology to the bullies - words fail me.

Those 60 girls from private school will probably all be at well-regarded universities by September. They will likely carry their convictions and "victory" with them. They will get kudos from their new friends there by telling them how they were part of a trans rights campaign to get a TERF out of their school.
Young people like this need to be challenged, but I'm blowed if I know how...it's become so risky to speak out publicly, people are afraid for their jobs and livelihood.

Even if the girl had said something impolite or offensive, it would never ever warrant the reported reaction. What world are u-18s living in, where this is the response to something you do not like? It's astonishing.

I'm not comfortable with focusing on the other girls, many of whom are, I imagine, children themselves. I don't know about the rest of you but I said and did some pretty dumb and reprehensible things at that age, and was scarily vulnerable to peer pressure.
As far as I'm concerned, any criticism and blame should be directed in one direction only, and that's at the school.

'Basic human rights' include things this girl has been denied, like the right to freedom of opinion, safety from harrassment, access to education. They should also protect people from coercion, intimidation and violence in a pluralistic society, but not guarantee 'safe spaces', a phrase which seems to mean places where one has the freedom not to be challenged or opposed. That freedom doesn't exist, and can't exist unless we prioritise one set of beliefs, thus infringing everyone else's right to freedom of opinion and expression. To say that trans people lack these 'basic human rights' is partly nonsense, but partly it seems to be based on a belief that a 'right' should exist in a 'safe space'.

I think we (perhaps particularly young people) need a better understanding of what 'rights' and 'safety' mean. We should be able to expect, especially in a school, that discussion and challenges to our beliefs are respectful and nonviolent, but also robust enough to make us think about the coherence of the belief set we've arrived at - that's what education is about. And we should expect people, even children, to learn that it's okay for other people to disagree with us and hold different beliefs. This is how institutions and society cope with multicultural populations, and how schools cope with RE lessons. Maybe RE teachers should be trained to lead on this, as they have experience of moderating discussion on religious beliefs in mixed-culture classes?

That’s a good point Floisme. I was about to say something negative about the other girls, but it's not that simple. It's almost as though they've been brainwashed. Still, I hope some of them will think again about how they responded. That poor girl. She should be applauded for asking questions. As for the teachers and the school, it sounds like they’ve lost sight of their priorities and have badly let down the pupils and particularly the girl in question. I hope they are held to account.

Wouldn’t it be nice if this sparked change in how schools handle gender ideology? If they feel unable to steer clear of it they should at least teach it in the same way that they teach religion, i.e. “some people believe there is a God, some people believe in Buddha” etc. etc. The key is to be balanced in how they tackle hot topics like gender ideology (and I would add critical race theory to that list too).

Someone upthread asked if any teens were brave enough to question gender ideology at school. Actually one of mine is, I’m proud to say. All three of my teens think “the gender stuff is crazy”. My DS at university says he’d be cancelled in an instant if he said anything in public against it (although in private with friends he says what he wants); my DD17 speaks out against it and is often accused of transphobia but she seems to have quite a good social standing and is able to shrug it off. DD14 finds it all crazy and illogical and she ends up avoiding the more radical people and allowing friendships to cool. Given that all mine are gender critical I do find it surprising that so many young people have swallowed the KoolAid. DD17 valiantly tries to use logic to support her case but to no avail. Apparently her group of friends were all saying how lovely it would be to have a girls-only nightclub so they could avoid excessive male attention for an evening. DD pointed out that with self ID (we are in Scotland) any man would be able to enter this nightclub – and she was accused of transphobia.
She just laughed.

Slightly off topic, but I mentioned at work that I admired JK Rowling and a (senior and influential) colleague told me never to say that at work, ever again.

When will this nonsense stop I wonder, and how can I help?.

Could it have been Baroness Lynne Featherstone, I wonder?

So much for the young uns getting bored with and rejecting trans ideology.

When will this nonsense stop I wonder, and how can I help?

You've reminded me I need to do this:

sex-matters.org/take-action/send-guidance-to-school/?mc_cid=0e5d9e8e7d&mc_eid=57bc9aa9c7

I strongly agree it's important to withhold criticism of the other young people involved here. They are young and they are young in a particularly febrile society where these are hot button issues that can lead to what feels like social death in addition to severe consequences.

This feels like an ideal time to recommend Mark Fisher's Exiting the Vampire's Castle as a way of understanding some of the dynamics at play here.

The first law of the Vampires’ Castle is: individualise and privatise everything. While in theory it claims to be in favour of structural critique, in practice it never focuses on anything except individual behaviour…Remember: condemning individuals is always more important than paying attention to impersonal structures. The actual ruling class propagates ideologies of individualism, while tending to act as a class. (Many of what we call ‘conspiracies’ are the ruling class showing class solidarity.) The VC, as dupe-servants of the ruling class, does the opposite: it pays lip service to ‘solidarity’ and ‘collectivity’, while always acting as if the individualist categories imposed by power really hold. Because they are petit-bourgeois to the core, the members of the Vampires’ Castle are intensely competitive, but this is repressed in the passive aggressive manner typical of the bourgeoisie. What holds them together is not solidarity, but mutual fear – the fear that they will be the next one to be outed, exposed, condemned.

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/exiting-the-vampires-castle?s=r

I do agree we shouldn't slate the kids. But it's reasonable to question what kind of environment permits the reported behaviour. And the environment is shaped by the leaders, which is the adults. The adults have failed here.

I think part of the difficulty with this, which is absolutely true, is that they are being trained this way with regard to all social and political controversies, not just gender ideology. Their whole education has had a significant focus on what they'd probably call social justice, not as a discourse or a set of arguments or even principles that need to be justified, but as a set of unquestionable pronouncements that are self-evident to anyone who isn't actually evil.

I'm not sure how you undo that kind of training.

Thank you @myelephant , you've put into words what I've been trying to articulate as I go to bat against our so-called inclusion policies at work.

JKR has tweeted about this today:

twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1526510094619377664?s=21

I can't read the replies, same with any of her tweets, such misguided people come crawling out of the woodwork.

Also I ment to say - I grew up in a world where the ACLU defended the right of KKK members to free speech. Today they are quite happy to ban books and will not defend people who have the "wrong" ideas.

The basis of liberal democratic thought has been thoughouly expunged from the worldview of these kids.

Lil OJ trying to get hold of ‘the other side of the story’ and have the school named in the press. That would put this young woman in danger. Very poor form.

The school don't seem to have made any effort to get speakers who might have presented a different view. They just seem to have accepted that anyone with other views must be the equivalent of racists (etc) and unworthy of being invited. They could have invited, say, Baroness Nicolson. And insisted on respect for all their speakers.

At my child's outstanding secondary all teachers I have been in contact with have pronouns in their bio. Trans ideology is taught - in RS - of all places, as fact - much hyperbole about bathroom bills and TW being the most marginalised, "cis" used as a matter of course. I approached a senior member of staff who I had previously had a great relationship with and had a fairly straightforward, non heated and what I hoped was productive convo about my concerns. It was left there. That teacher has since distanced herself from my child, who is disabled, to the point that my child sadly told me "I really don't think Miss … likes me anymore, she never says hello like she used to or even smiles at me now". My child recounts overhead conversations where students talk of calling social services on the parents of N/B & Trans students because they're not being caring or accepting enough.

This account of mob bullying and the teaching body's lack of response is of no surprise to me at all. Mine and my child's own experiences have left me with a cold feeling of dread about where all this is headed. I've told my child to keep their head down and concentrate on their work and lessons, they'll be out of their soon enough.

OMG overheard not overhead and there not their obvs!