The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Trans ideology is as pervasive as ever and our children are the first victims
Any parent raising a child in 2024 is more than familiar with the term “safeguarding”. Only the other week, I was asked to fill out a series of forms regarding my 10-yearold’s imminent school residential trip to Newquay.
Do I consent to photographs being taken of my daughter? Can a supervising member of staff apply E45 cream or give her a Strepsil if needed? Am I okay with the notion of her being fed a spoonful of Calpol or Piriton should the circumstances require it? In the same set of paperwork, parents were also reminded to supply their children with a packed lunch for the coach down to Cornwall – but absolutely not one that contained nuts or sesame seeds, again for “safeguarding” reasons.
Safeguarding is rightly an important issue for schools. But we appear to have ended up in the bizarre situation of parents being required to sign off on everything their little ones do that might incur a modicum of risk – from the application of potentially allergenic plasters to the packing of nut-free lunches – while they are having to worry that some teachers might consent to changes without their knowledge on one of the most important aspects of their child’s life.
This week, reported the deeply concerning news that some primary school teachers are being told to allow children to change gender without informing their parents despite government guidance to the contrary. An analysis of more than 600 school equality and trans policies revealed that up to three-quarters misrepresent laws protecting sex and gender, with some implementing rules such as letting boys use girls’ toilets and changing rooms if they say they are a girl.
One trust, which includes a number of Church of England primary schools, has even advised teachers to assist girls using breast binders while on school trips and allow students to sleep in bedrooms which match their “gender identity”.
The analysis of hundreds of mainstream state schools across Devon and Cornwall found that 73 per cent and 62 per cent respectively were incorrectly representing equality laws. The dossier, compiled by Protect and Teach, a network of women concerned about gender ideology in schools, was undertaken in the regions after research showed that they had some of the highest rates of referral to gender identity services in the country.
Sadly, it seems that government “guidance” is just not strong enough. One mother from the West Country has told how she only discovered that her daughter had been allowed to change gender at school when teachers called her “he” at a parents’ evening.
The 13-year-old was allowed to change her name and pronouns at school despite her mother warning that she felt that it was a one-way path to sex change hormones and surgery.
The mother, who claims that schools are “collecting diversity brownie points” and pretending being trans is “all glitter and unicorns” without warning children about the long-term physical and mental impact, added: “The school started affirming her behind my back... They say that it is all about being kind, but I think it is cruel. They only have to deal with her until she reaches 16 and I will have to pick up the pieces when they have long since forgotten her.”
While shocking, these stories do not come as much of a surprise to me.
At last year’s Conservative Party conference, I appeared on a panel alongside a campaigner for the Bayswater Support Group, which highlights the safeguarding loopholes around the application of gender identity ideology to children and vulnerable young adults, who claimed that parents across the UK are routinely being kept in the dark about their children’s trans identification.
That discussion took place two months before the Government published its long-awaited draft guidance in December, which suggested that schools do not have to accept all requests for social transition and should involve parents in at least some of the decisions that are made.
What is really scary about the latest revelations is that these wrongheaded policies remain in place despite the Government’s intervention. Parents have waited for years for the guidance to give them clarity and confidence – only for some primary schools to seemingly ignore it. It certainly says something when even Church of England schools have been implicated in this mess.
Do parental rights not mean anything anymore? What has happened to the parental right to know if their child is being socially transitioned at school? The current situation only serves to prove the folly of non-legally binding government guidance in the place of actual legislation.
When the guidance was published, some rightly questioned the efficacy of it, arguing that technically, teachers would not be obliged to follow suit. Others suggested that the name of the proposed “trans” guidance was symptomatic of the problem, arguing that the proposals should have been viewed as an extension of safeguarding for pupils.
The underlying argument seemed to be that social trends have become more powerful than government diktats, and that only a change in the law can halt the spread of wokery. Looking around now, it’s hard to deny that is the case.
I genuinely thought we had turned a corner when it came to facing down the tiny but vocal minority of trans zealots who have been so ruthless in
Failing to grasp the nettle: Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and minister for Equalities Kemi Badenoch
trying to impose their warped agenda. We had learnt of the obvious safeguarding concerns raised by the interim Cass review into gender identity services for children, which warned that social transitioning is “not a neutral act”. We live in hope that the final report, due to be published soon, calls out the schools which have greedily gulped down the trans Kool-Aid, despite the risks to children – not to mention the rights of their parents.
Yet with Scotland having introduced new hate crime laws that threaten to criminalise those expressing gender critical views, and the row across the pond over the “trans day of visibility” taking precedence over Easter Sunday, it feels like the tide is once again turning against common sense.
Come after us adults, by all means. As JK Rowling has bravely told the Saltire-clad police this week: arrest me if you dare. But don’t come after our children. If schools are still prioritising trans ideology over the safety of children and young people, then guidance alone is not going to protect the next generation.
Laws already exist which state that parents are in charge of their offspring. It’s time for the Government to re-enforce this legislation or risk presiding over what is fast resembling the biggest failure of children’s safeguarding in living memory. it is routinely recorded, so students can choose to watch online instead of physically attending the lecture.
This apparent pandemic hangover is now so embedded in university culture that successive government ministers have failed to do anything about it and the Office for Students has also seemingly turned a blind eye.
Penny-pinching universities are of course delighted as it enables them to sell more online courses that are not restricted by physical infrastructure.
But what of the effect on a generation of graduates who are being isolated in their bedrooms and failing to socialise, learn from their tutors and from eachother?
As Mr Wiltshire has pointed out: “This is pedagogically sub-optimal, denies a full rich university experience and can be damaging to mental health.”
Surely if students want to study online, they should apply to the Open University? Since we would not tolerate continued online learning in schools, I’m not quite sure why it is being allowed to prosper in higher education.