A new report claims that schools are routinely allowing children to switch gender and not informing their parents.
The report by The Policy Exchange condemns schools for uncritically accepting contested beliefs on gender identity and says the practice of affirming “gender distress” has become embedded.
According to The Times:
Schools are neglecting safeguarding by adopting affirmative practices when confronted with children who are questioning or are confused by their gender identity, the Policy Exchange publication says.
It suggests that some schools risk breaching laws by failing to offer single-sex toilets or by allowing organisations involved in political campaigning to provide relationship and sex education lesson resources.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said head teachers were trying to teach children sensitively in a “minefield of strongly held and opposing views” without guidance from the government, despite requesting support.
Forty per cent of the 150 secondary schools in England that answered the right-of-centre think tank’s freedom of information requests let pupils change gender without parental consent, the study found.
It added that schools were “effectively facilitating medical interventions on site”, by supporting pupils in their desired identity.
The former education secretaries Nadhim Zahawi and Baroness Morris of Yardley and the chairman of the Commons’ education select committee, Robin Walker, have backed the report.
The Labour MP Rosie Duffield said there was “systemic failure” caused by an ill-considered embrace of gender ideology and that children were paying the price for a “reckless experiment”.
The report, Asleep at the Wheel, says that only 28 per cent of schools were “reliably informing” parents as soon as a child disclosed feelings of gender distress and that 33 per cent would not necessarily inform the designated safeguarding lead at school — instead some contacted the staff responsible for LGBT matters.
Forty per cent of schools operated policies of gender self-identification and 69 per cent of schools required other children to affirm the pupil’s new identity. Some schools were mistakenly using the Equality Act or data protection rules to justify not telling families.
Among the report’s recommendations are that made nine recommendations, including that parents should automatically be told when a child discloses feelings of gender distress at school, unless there is a compelling reason not to.
It also says no school should facilitate a child’s social transition to the opposite gender unless backed by medical advice.
