Secondary School mixed sex changing rooms complaint: Update from school (again)

[TangenitalContrivences]

Hello everyone - Have just received a further update from my daughters (14) secondary school (Brighton) regarding my complaint - which is at stage 2 - go to governors complaint, and my further email to the school asking them to comply with the EHRC interim guidance.

I'll copy both responses below, redacted.

I would very, very much appreciate specific feedback to include in my responses to the school, it's been people here (and elsewhere) who have helped me put together really powerful letters that have clearly rattled the school.

However - there is still a male in the female changing spaces at this school. Therefore it is mixed sex.

(link to the last discussion if you want context https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5309038-secondary-school-complaint-about-mixed-sex-changing-rooms-update-school-response-and-request-for-help-writing-the-escalated-complaint-to-governors )

Keep going @TangenitalContrivences and honestly, I wouldn't bother with contacting the governors at this point. They are liable, they should know this. They no doubt have seen your letters and if they have not then the Headteacher has failed to do his/her job. You have provided lots of information about the law as it is, I don't think you can do more than you have done.

It's on them to stay on top of this, it's their legal responsibility to comply with the law as it is not the law as they want it to be or as activist institutions want it to be. They are meant to put the wellbeing of the children first always - this is in governor induction training. If they're failing in their job, and they are, that's not on you to fix.

I think the Ofsted route will be more productive at this point - the school has clearly shown you their ideological bias and any further attempts to contact outside the complaints process will likely get you labelled as 'vexatious'.

I think this might be considered harassment.

Governors usually have school email addresses and these should be used to contact them in relation to the school. Sticking to the complaints process will stand up better in a court of law, trying to find their personal accounts will not.

If a crowdfunder for a judicial review is set up I will donate £100 straight away.

Which is why a JR is likely needed. The safeguarding breaches are so evident and the potential for sex crimes (vouyeurism & indecent exposure) are clear.

I understand why parents are so reluctant to push this - especially if their child is caught up in the ideology. Which is why - as with the successful CPS JR - we need outraged parents furious that a school is compelling their daughter to undress in front of a teenage boy. Just as seen in the OP.

The optics of the Sandie Peggie case were significant for the general public in seeing how toxic the NHS is in prioritising a man's rights to access undressing women colleagues. A school trying to defend the same thing in a court would blow this open and get this predatory behaviour out of schools in an instant.

This ⬆️⬆️⬆️

You've got a strong wind behind you OP. It's obvious that this thread has now attracted some TRA interest but you've got lots of people in your corner.

IANAL, nor do I hold the purse strings of people who have generously donated funding for court cases behind the scenes. JKR is one but I know that there are more. So with that disclaimer in mind, IMO this is exactly the kind of case that will attract significant interest in those that discuss and agree funding donations behind the scenes.

Stage one would be for a legal expert to review the information that you've got relating to the potential case, to see if it a good fit for a JR. This will obviously cost money and it may involve the solicitor liaising with a barrister. If it is confirmed as a viable case, you'll need a lot more money. It's possible to get funding for both stages (and you can also pay some money yourself towards it and/or crowdfund), but it's obviously not guaranteed. The anonymous donors will understandably be careful about where and how they spend their money.

Do the minutes of governors meetings have to be made available? It would be interesting to see who is pushing this and how it is presented.

Good advice. I'm NOT pressurising the OP. Just pointing out to all the parents that it's up to us to act as we watch our children being gaslit that their boundaries can be negotiable if someone from the sacred caste demands access to them undressing.

I know that most teens would be horrified if their parents challenged the school about all this. But the trans capture of some schools continues as to date no adults face the consequences for pushing transactivism at children below the age of consent. Let alone being exposed for removing basic safeguarding from children with mixed sex changing rooms etc.

Well, that's what is implied by the Brighton trans kit. But presumably they have done a risk assessment. However, the risk assessment is now worthless since the SC has said that a transgirl is a boy and not allowed into female only spaces. Might as well give in soon as late.

Agree. Also 'case by case' decisions are not supported by the EA2010.

But the law is clear: no males in single sex female changing areas.

That is a good point re pressure.

I appreciate my enthusiasm may have come across as implicit pressure. I should also say that you've got lots of us in your corner regardless of what you decide to do as this continues to unfold, OP.

@TangenitalContrivences Do you know where the trans boys (females) change?

I'd be interested to know if the school accepts there's a safeguarding issue here and so that group still changes in the girls changing rooms, or not.

The interim guidance and SC ruling are clear that boys should not use girls' changing rooms. I can't see a court failing to find the school negligent.

That doesn't mean that the OP shouldn't try to safeguard his daughters and every other girl in that school.

Evil triumphs when good people do nothing. Making girls strip in front of boys is an evil act.

I’m confused as to what Walkden thinks the point of interim guidance actually is.

Re: the governors… A written ultimatum referencing school policy?: “Policy #? states that in the event of ??? parents should contact the governors. I have attempted to access their contact details [in list of ways in list of dates]. If these are not made available to me by ???, I will regretfully have to conclude that these details are being actively withheld from me in contravention of this policy.” If nothing else, you then at least have this corner of the saga nearly evidenced in one place…

Very good point I can use that thank you.

Very kind. You and everyone who has said this which is loads of people!

I need to figure out what can happen and what’s the best step forward. Have had more info on the school that’s helpful. Do think this could be the thing to crush the toolkit once and for all

Also I don’t think we should lose sight of these changes would protect everyone. Boys, girls and trans identified kids as well. Boys don’t want a girl in their changing room as much as girls don’t want a boy. It’s a mess all round.

I believe changing rooms are separated entirely by gender, never sex.

Once this specific issue has been dealt with - and I cannot see any other outcome than changing rooms become designated by sex, even though the school are being tardy, if you wanted to be very naughty, given that the SC simply clarified the position, a group action to sue the school for mental distress they caused to students by allowing a different sex peer to be present when they were changing would put the nail in any future coffins.

I don’t have any helpful advice @TangenitalContrivences , but I just wanted to cheer you on. I was so deeply, searingly shy as a child and adolescent that I wouldn’t get dressed/undressed even with fellow-girls in a single-sex changing-room - I had to hide away in the toilets - and showers after games were actual torture. Being forced to do any of that with boys present would have tipped me over the edge, I think. So what you’re doing is fantastic.

Excellent advice.

Our (primary) school includes the email addresses of all the safeguarding-specific staff and governors on every school newsletter as a matter of course. At the very least this information should be available to parents via the school website - making it unobtainable doesn't look good for the school. Is it legal to withhold that information, I wonder.

There's no legal requirement to publish governor's personal emails. In fact, as governors can end up hearing a complaint about a school, it's important not to step outside the complaints process as prior knowledge can disbar someone from participating in a complaint against a school.

Safeguarding complaints should always go direct to the school (unless it's a specific allegation against the Head, when it goes to the Chair of Governors).

Not personal emails, of course, the dedicated staff/governor emails along the lines of john.smith@school. Our school makes these known alongside the role of each person in relation to safeguarding.

Yes. If anyone needed to email the Head of Governors re safeguarding (ie a concern about the Head), how would they go about that process?

OP, have you checked the school's safeguarding policy to check if the email address is in there?