Telegraph: Teaching union opposes schools having to tell parents if child changes gender

[ResisterRex]

Read it and weep:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/05/union-against-schools-telling-parents-child-changes-gender/

"A teaching union will campaign against government plans to force schools to tell parents if their child changes gender.
Members of the National Education Unionn_ (NEU) agreed on Friday to oppose what teachers described as the “compulsory ‘outing’” of pupils to parents.
Teachers at the union’s annual conference in Bournemouthh also said they would campaign against a ban on any aspect of “social transitioningg” in schools, which could include allowing children to change their pronounss_ or use lavatories or changing facilities of the opposite sex.
The motion, approved by the majority of delegates at the conference, was drawn up in response to draft government guidancee_ on gender-questioning children.
The long-awaited advice states that schoolss_ in England should not accept all requests for social transitioning and should involve parents in any decision that is made.
Speaking in favour of the campaign against the guidance, Kathryn Barton, an NEU member, said she knew of a seven-year-old who had transitioned during the summer holiday and said that “not a single pupil” had a problem with it.

...

Midge Lowe, a teacher from Doncaster, said the Government’s draft guidance was “regressive trash” and said teachers must campaign for it to be withdrawn.
...

No delegates at the conference spoke against the motion, which also stated that “schools, colleges and external providers should not change or remove LGBT++_ inclusive policies or curriculum content as ‘knee-jerk’ response to political rhetoric”."

The same union voted to affiliate with Just Like Us

https://x.com/safeschoolsuk/status/1776511307564335381?s=46&t=WHoOZZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

Bloody hell.

The depth of ignorance is frightening.
Kids - your bodies are wrong but we can fix them with a quick sex change (and we'll keep all this a secret from your parents). 😡

The quote from the woefully ignorant Midge Lowe says it all:
“This guidance, refusing to acknowledge the existence of trans children, is a risk, is harmful. Refusing to allow a cautious but early social transition is harmful and encourages risk-taking behaviour in later stages of life where it presents much greater harm.”

There is zero evidence for this statement yet it's made with all the over confidence of an activist. Shame on the NEU for promoting such an appalling anti safeguarding approach.

“Not a single pupil” had a problem with it. Because seven year olds’ grasp for the world and ability to understand the future is always so prescient.

This is a potentially helpful development. It strengthens the case for making the guidance statutory.

Ignorance is the charitable assumption.

Another related story (CofE schools)

Illegal to deny sex can change, teachers told

digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk/data/1667/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/1667/pub/1667/page/32/article/NaN

And the print version of the one in my OP

Teacher union opposes school gender plan

digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk/data/1667/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/1667/pub/1667/page/34/article/NaN

As a thought experiment, how does this read if we swap out the words "changes gender" to "shows signs of gender dysphoria"?

A child doesn't have "a gender", other than in the grammatical sense. You can't change something you don't have. "Changing one's gender" is no more concrete than "changing one's favourite colour" or "changing the name of one's imaginary friend".

But the implications of transitioning are much more significant than those things.

So if we swap out "changes gender" for "shows signs of gender dysphoria", what we have here is a teaching union campaigning against a policy of teachers being required to tell parents if their child is exhibiting signs of psychological distress which could potentially lead to serious mental and physical health problems if not addressed in an appropriate manner.

If a teacher noticed that a teenage girl had lost a lot of weight and had not been observed eating anything for a while, they would inform the parents, wouldn't they? They wouldn't say, "I understand, you want to be thin, don't worry, we'll support your diet at school and not tell your parents."

The utter gall of this union. They've got to be trolling us by this point.

www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/05/teachers-union-leader-calls-for-inquiry-into-misogyny-among-young-men-in-uk

I'm seriously considering changing unions at this point. The NEU has the hoghest membership among teachers, but absolutely does not represent the views of any teachers that I know.

*highest membership

I’m a retired teacher.
This makes me so angry.

This is tantamount to the NEU dismissing the basic principles of safeguarding school children. As for voting to be affiliated to Just Like Us: they don’t care who spouts ideological nonsense at children.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom 100% spot on.

Pasting what I said in another thread

The fact that people who are too stupid to see the link between a catastrophic rise in misogyny and thousands of young girls trying to identify out of womanhood and the inherent sexism is an ideology that says if you like pink and make up and
being subservient you must be female are in charge of teaching in this country makes me want to scream into the void for eternity!

This Mail article was linked elsewhere yesterday. They say that children (presumably girls) who don't feel comfortable with boys in their changing rooms can shove off somewhere else:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13277255/Academy-trust-primary-school-teachers-breaking-law-pupils-trans-changing-rooms.html?ico=topics_pagination_desktop

It tells parents that in a scenario where their children is concerned about changing with a transgender pupil, the child who 'feels uncomfortable around the trans person' would be offered 'an alternative changing arrangement'.

The policy, which contradicts previous legal rulings which stated that gender critical views are protected by law, has now been removed by the Academy after a member of the public claimed it breached equality laws.^

Further, they claim that physical differences can be managed in PE. I'm not sure what these deluded ideologues are on:

It reportedly states that there should be 'few , if any, issues regarding participation in the sports of their true gender' when pupils are taking part in PE classes.

It also adds that any physical advantage afforded to a male pupil should 'be managed properly within the lesson context rather than by preventing young transgender people from participating'.

What percentage of teachers in the UK are members of the NEU, just out of curiosity?

As a parent, I find their stance on the outside organisation Just Like Us very concerning.

Part of this is reactive. You can bet that if a Labour government introduced similar guidelines urging caution, these teachers would be praising them for their common sense.

I hope the government make the guidelines law and/or there’s legal action taken against some teachers.

I do wonder if they are too stupid. Maybe they're so blinded by being against the government - and so deep in gender ideology - that they're outright refusing to look at the evidence.

Either way, it's really really worrying that teachers are too dense or too steeped in ideology to look dispassionately at evidence and discharge their safeguarding responsibilities.

Children deserve much better than this.

I couldn’t agree with you more @ResisterRex

Flawed as they are, the new guidelines when they're finally published will give parents back up in challenging schools. They're unequivocal that schools should not be socially transitioning primary children. No mixed sex changing rooms / sleeping accommodation.
My guess is that Ofsted having now reverse ferreted from their Stonewall days will be forced to go into schools where transactivists are keeping secrets from parents. It's such an evident safeguarding fail. Most of these parents will not be a danger in any way to their children. Adults removing a parent's ability to protect their child by keeping such an huge secret from them should face gross misconduct charges.

The NEU is the new formulation of the old NUT - and in both incarnations has always been the union of endless political agitation. During Covid they were calling for longer, harder lockdown in schools, and after Covid they've been out on strike several times, and intend to again, if they get enough votes .The plan is to disrupt the start of next year's school year with more strikes.

They've gone full on 'TRA' and also full on 'boycott Israel' etc. If I was still a teaching I'd steer well clear. There are other unions who main interest is in providing support to their members when really needed, rather than this endless radicalised politicking.

I’ve just looked at the website for JLU. They have a School Diversity Week coming up in June 24-28th. Some of you may be interested to know this 🫣

It is the biggest union - with maybe about 60/70% of teachers as members. Most members, though, are not radicalised and most do not even vote when it comes to strike action - but do feel obliged to go out, anyway.

It’s the majority as lots of teachers swapped in order to be able to strike. I’d say it’s 85% NEU in my school.