Detention for calling transgender teacher 'sir'

[hockeysticks89]

There is a trans woman teacher at our local school, has retained a full beard but wears a dress. Any pupil calling him sir gets a detention.

It's not my childs' school but a friend's child has had a detention for this. It was a slip up not a deliberate misgendering. They are not normally a trouble maker.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it the norm now? It was a year 7 pupil btw.
Thanks

Proof ?

You're maybe not quite understanding the way an anonymous posting site works?

OP, don't feel you need to offer any identifying info to anyone.

They need to learn to call the teacher by preferred name (Mr X or Ms Y), or just not use a name at all

And as it's not your child, or even your DC's school, I suspect you may not have the full story.

I don't believe you.

Why?
The precedent set in most schools is Sir for men and Miss for women.
It’s hardly a punishable offence to use sor with an obvious male. Unless you think it’s ok to teach children to distrust their own eyes.

I have been called Sir and mum by various pupils over the years, it happens, you laugh about it and move on.
If you want to be a woman, at least shave off your beard.

If this is true and the full story it's ridiculous.

As a female teacher I get called sir sometimes by accident (nice kids, genuine mistakes, usually when answering the register on autopilot. Kids make mistakes.

Oh yes, and mum, that's my favourite - the kids are always mortified!!

I wasn't looking to name the school at the moment, just get reactions as to whether this is the new norm. The reactions I've had suggest that it's not, so I'll maybe look into it further and see if there is proof - I've previously been more of a lurker and a liker on X but I want to start supporting the brave ladies and some gents who post on there regularly so maybe I'll share the details there if I can get proof.

The source is straight from the parents' of the detained child's mouth so I've no reason to doubt it.

@SpinningTopps It’s always the really hard Y9 boys who slip up and call me mum… 🤣

I can well believe it happened the reach of this insidious ideology into Schools is well documented.

No it should not be happening, the teacher in question needs to grow up and behave like the adult he is supposed to be and the school should absolutely not be putting children into detention for saying what is in front of their eyes, teaching children to lie is abhorrent and dangerous.

Seems unlikely.

Assuming for the moment that it’s true the parent of the child should refuse the detention. If the teacher insists then a meeting can be arranged where he explains his position to an adult.

A friend’s daughter got a detention for “deadnaming” a schoolmate she’d known as “Jane” since nursery. Now in year 10 she wanted to be known as Sirius.

Friend went to speak to teacher to be told “Them’s the rules’. I have no reason to doubt friend’s account.

This 100% Don't play along with that bollocks - pun intended

"must" has appeared in ours, so probably. A lot of small c conservative parents in the area so might well be complains. The teacher in question, their title is taken as Mx, it gets pronounced as "mix" by the kids. The word "must" seems to be being used too much at the moment.

The child effectively followed your advice, and used a sexed honorific. I'd suggest that it's quite likely that a child that neglects to use a name, honorific, or title would be reprimanded for disrespect.

Bully

Sounds unlikely this happened but I wouldn't be surprised if it had.

Instead of all this lecturing and presuming to know more about the OP than the OP does, why not just respond.

If nobody responds then the OP will know its not usual / normal.

It just seems there are more and more contributors to threads that want to turn FWR into a school yard ya boo sucks.

Presumably to make FWR look like it is a forum for 12 year olds.

And also less useful ie if there were only 10 responses based on actual experience either way the thread would serve a function.

Now anybody who is genuinely interest has to wade through whatabouterry posts.

Not only this but the constant hijacking of threads is really reducing the value of FWR.

Sorry OP. I have no info either way as not connected to any children at school. Hopefull some on FWR could give example of what has happened in schools they are familiar with which would give you a perspective.

At another school, 11-year-old pupils have been punished for “misgendering” their teacher, according to the parent who runs PSHE Brighton, a campaign group for families worried about <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/GCEW3/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/09/ofsted-chiefs-warning-explicit-sex-education-lessons/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sex education in schools.
She said: “We’ve had Year 7s who are innocently going ‘Yes miss, I’ll do that’. Bang, they are in what’s called a non detention … like lockdown, something like that where they lock them up after school. Two years in a row the Year 7s have been given this punishment for misgendering this teacher in their first three days at school.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/27/activist-teachers-survey-pupils-gender-confusion-claim/
Full article can be read here https://archive.ph/GCEW3

I’m afraid I’m not sure as to whether or not it’s now usual; but I’d be fascinated to know quite how the school would protect students whose disabilities meant they struggled to “correctly gender” the teacher in question.

All sorts of neurological & neurodevelopmental wonkiness would mean children & young people in the school environment, even trying really hard to remember the man with a beard who wears a dress wants to be called Miss, wouldn’t be able to override “Sir” during a stressful &/or sudden interaction. And the given value of “stressful” may be relatively low, if they find eg the classroom light + noise of others talking + wearing a tie stressful…

Looks like our school has had a teacher ‘resign’ for deadnaming a pupil. Of course, they could have fought it, been sacked and now be unable to find alternative work as a teacher - but who can afford to do this? I wouldn’t be at all surprised that some schools are detaining pupils for similar ‘offences’

For avoidance of further misinterpretation, I was not advising something tantamount to what happened here - ie the use of a different honorific to the one the individual wants.

They should be using the names as provided to them - likely to be Ms X or Mr Y (or, of course Mx Z) as very few schools use first names with pupils for teachers. It is rude to call someone by a name other than their own - irrespective of whether you like it, disapprove of the rationale or whatever - see oodles of threads passim on how to address a married woman to see how firmly individual choice is supported

Or if they do not want to do that, then just manage to avoid using any sort of name at all.

I think reprimand is unlikely following a polite "excuse me" or similar circumlocution - absence of name/title salutation won't even be noticed

To those people trashing the OP - you clearly have not been in a secondary school lately. This is entirely plausible - this is where we are now

And to the PP who expressed concerns about neurodiverse students trying to remember what to call these staff members/students who have socially transitioned - it is horrendous for them.