The press release reads:
MONDAY 23 MARCH 2026 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Brighton Schools Face Legal Challenge On Toilets and
Changing Rooms
First case on single sex spaces in secondary schools
A CONCERNED FATHER AND HIS 15-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER have commenced proceedings in the High Court against a school in Brighton and against Brighton & Hove City Council, which has responsibility for the school.
The claimants are alleging that the fact that the school allows, on a case-by-case basis, biological boys to use the girls’
facilities is a clear breach of its safeguarding duties, and beyond that, it discriminates against female pupils and is unlawful.
The father began to be concerned when his daughter mentioned that she believed that she had been sharing a girls’ changing room at school with a boy who identifies as female. Neit er she nor her parents had been consulted or advised of this. This is clearly a safeguarding risk as well as something which potentially makes any girl feel uncomfortable and/or threatened. She explains, ‘I feel deeply let down by the school and by my teachers. I am angry that we were not consulted about a boy being in our changing room… I feel that our privacy and dignity as girls do not appear to be a safeguarding priority for the school at all. ’
When her father found out that his daughter had been put in this position, he made many attempts to address this with the school but with no success. The school has no published policy in this area, nor does it produce any internal guidance for decision makers. The school can decide that biological boys may use the girls’ facilities without consulting with, or even informing, the affected female pupils or their parents.
The father stated, “The school hasn’t told parents or pupils this is even happening, let alone asked permission. And I know girls at the school are taught that they should accept trans-identifying boys as girls without question. Female students are being subjected to needless risk, discomfort and loss of privacy, at the time when they are most vulnerable. All children should have privacy and dignity at school, and if trans-identifying children do not want to use the toilets and changing rooms that align with their sex, the school should provide a suitable third option for them. Why should the rights of girls, and for that matter, boys, be overlooked like this?”
He added, “This action is a last resort. I have tried for over a year to get the school to take its legal safeguarding duties seriously, but they have ignored me, refused to follow up on my complaints and finally labelled me vexatious, all because I don't think there should be penises in my daughter's changing room.”
Professor Jo Phoenix, who has produced an expert report for the litigation, explains girls’ “fear and distress in this context is not irrational or hypersensitive. It is grounded in the documented reality of sexual violence and harassment directed at women and girls in contemporary Britain and in UK schools specifically. ”
She continues, “Research evidence across three independent but mutually reinforcing bodies of scholarship… establishes that requiring adolescent girls to share communal changing facilities with biological males creates multiple foreseeable and well- evidenced harms.” In her expert report she explains that the approach to risk assessment adopted by the school is flawed and “no case by-case risk assessment or exercise of professional judgment – however carefully constructed – can reliably offset the foreseeable safeguarding harms identified in this report.”
Tanya Carter, of Safe Schools Alliance, said, “We welcome this long overdue legal action against Brighton & Hove Council; they have been in dereliction of their safeguarding duties for years. As regards the school, it’s utterly ludicrous that a boy would be allowed into the girls’ changing rooms. If a head teacher cannot see this, they are unfit to be in charge of children and should be removed from post. Parents have to place enormous trust in those who run our schools - how can they be so casual about the safeguarding of our children?”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
1 The claimants are alleging the school’s approach is unlawful on the following grounds:
(i) The school is infringing the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012 by not providing ‘suitable' toilets, changing rooms and washing facilities in so far as adolescents using them are sometimes required to undress in front of the
opposite biological sex. They can only be called ‘suitable’ if they promote the safeguarding and wellbeing of ALL pupils. Anything which results in discrimination or harassment cannot be deemed ‘suitable’. Also, toilets which aren’t in individual lockable rooms must be provided on a separate sex basis according to the Regulations. The school’s approach results in indirect discrimination against girls under Equalities Act 2010 s.19 and s85(2)(b) ie girls are at a particular disadvantage as compared to boys and the school hasn’t justified that disadvantage. The school’s approach results in harassment against girls in the school contrary to
(ii)
s.26 and s.85(3) Equalities Act 2010 - violating girls' dignity or 'creating an
intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment's.26(1)(b (i).
(iii) As a public authority, the school is in breach of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and/or Article 14 (prohibiting discrimination based on
(here) sex) of the European Convention on Human Rights. (iv) The school is in breach of its public sector equality duty under s.149 Equalities
Act 2010.
2 The Local Authority (Brighton & Hove City Council) has failed to comply with its statutory duty under rs.542(2) of the Education Act 1996 to 'secure that the school premises conform to the prescribed standards' in accordance with the 2012 Regs and//or its duties under s.175(1) of the Education Act 2002. It’s also in breach of its duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils at the school (s.175(1) Education Act 2002.
3 The claimants are seeking a declaration by the Court that the school is in breach on all the above grounds and that the Local Authority has breached its statutory duty by failing to secure the lawful provision of facilities and has breached its safeguarding duties.
4 The Department for Education report published in September 2021 ‘Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges’ references a number of surveys which emphasise the specific risks to girls.
5 For more information, please contact Conrathe Gardner, law firm