Male teachers in skirts as expert says pupils being ‘brainwashed’
Primary school ‘equalities’ event sparks backlash
CHILDREN at a school where all pupils were encouraged to wear skirts have been ‘brainwashed’ with ‘woke’ ideas, it was claimed yesterday.
The Mail revealed this week that children and teachers at Castleview Primary in Craigmillar, Edinburgh, were told to come to nursery and school in skirts.
Staff including the school’s ‘equalities co-ordinator’ tweeted pictures of male teachers and boys in skirts and hailed the event yesterday as a success that would help to ‘promote tolerance’.
But parents and education experts voiced concern after the shared pupils’ letters backing the idea online, prompting claims children were being used as ‘pawns for adult political agendas’.
Last night, Chris McGovern of the Campaign for Real Education, who branded the skirt event ‘child cruelty’, said: ‘What these comments represent is the absolute triumph of the teacher-training institutions whose output are brainwashed zealots of wokeism.
‘It’s obvious that the pupils have been brainwashed into these woke ideas too.’
Jo Bisset, organiser for parents’ group UFTScotland, said: ‘Given everything parents and pupils have been through in the last 18 months, it’s astonishing this is even close to being a priority. Families would rather children receive high-quality and uninterrupted education.’
The skirt policy came to light when the mother of a five-yearold boy raised the alarm on social media on Wednesday.
An email from the school said all pupils, including nursery children, were encouraged to attend wearing skirts yesterday if they felt ‘comfortable’ doing so. The move was to show solidarity with a pupil in Spain who was expelled for wearing a skirt, sparking the ‘Clothes Have No Gender’ movement.
Yesterday, Jess Chapman, Castleview Primary’s attainment and equalities co-ordinator, tweeted ‘wonderful letters written by our brilliant P6s calling on our school leaders to challenge gender stereotypes’.
One pupil said: ‘It is important that we challenge gender stereotypes, also remember all children are unique.’
There were more than 1,000 comments on MailOnline fol lowing the story. One reader said: ‘Any teacher signing off on this is not fit to be in charge of educating a goldfish, let alone impressionable primary schoolchildren.’
Another told of worry ‘for the next generation, being indoctrinated by failed Marxists’.
Last night, Simon Calvert, deputy director of the Christian Institute, said: ‘Youngsters need to be protected from being turned into pawns for adult political agendas.’
The City of Edinburgh Council said no parents had complained about the event. A spokesman said: ‘The school has had positive feedback from parents.’
But Collette Carter, 25, from Greendykes, told how she rowed with her son over the fact he wanted to wear a skirt to the school yesterday.
She said: ‘It can just get confusing for the children.’
‘Children need to be protected’