Mick Hartley

We've heard about the Stonewall-inspired guidance for teachers in Scotland, where a child can inform teachers that they'd like to change sex, thanks very much, and the teachers must go along with it without bothering to inform the parents. It's been happening in Wales too, apparently:

For the boy’s family the declaration this year that he was trans came “absolutely out of the blue”.

Within days of it, the boy sent his parents a text message from his school in south Wales to say that, at his request, some people in school were calling him by a girl’s name.

“He had been bullied at school, but he had never mentioned these feelings before,” the boy’s father said. “We sat down at home and said, ‘OK, but let’s take our time, let’s not go fast, don’t put yourself in a box that is difficult to come back from. This needs to be explored’.”

But within a week, before his parents had had time to grapple with the news, his teachers phoned to say that the boy, who was under 14, had requested his name be changed on the school register, and that he be allowed to join the girls’ PE classes.

The parents were called to a meeting at the school. There, they expressed their belief that their son should be allowed to have therapy to explore his feelings before radical changes were made. However, they were told that teachers were believed to have already begun to refer to him by a female name.

The school said it was obliged to follow guidance from the local authority, known as a trans toolkit. This guidance advised schools that they should support children to change gender. It has since been withdrawn after the family enlisted lawyers to challenge it. At the threat of a judicial review, Rhondda Cynon Taf county borough council confirmed that it had temporarily removed the toolkit and would review it.

The boy’s case raises questions about the way in which schools are dealing with the growing number of cases of children who feel confused about or question their gender identity.

There has been an explosion in the number of children wanting to change gender in recent years. In 2009 77 patients were referred to England’s only children’s gender identity treatment clinic. By April 2019 the number had hit 2,590.

The trans toolkit for teachers stated: “Remember that a pupil who identifies as a trans girl but was born biologically male is not a ‘boy dressed as a girl’ but is a girl who outwardly at this point resembles a ‘boy’.” It also suggested that transgender children could be called by a name they requested and use the lavatory or changing facility that most closely aligned with their identity.

I think we can assume this nonsense is straight from the Stonewall playbook. “Remember that a pupil who identifies as a trans girl but was born biologically male is a girl who outwardly at this point resembles a ‘boy’.” But give him some puberty blockers, some hormone replacement therapy, and he'll soon be on the road to a lifetime's medical misery. This, in effect, is school-sanctioned grooming.

Also worth noting: there's no mention of what the girls at the school might feel like, just starting puberty presumably, and now having a boy invade their changing rooms and other private spaces. Were they consulted, and their parents informed? Of course not.

The dispute in south Wales started this spring, when the boy told his parents he was trans. “We tried to talk around that for a few days, but what became a huge struggle was that in school he had asked teachers to change the name on the register and go along with what he wanted,” the boy’s father said.

By the time the parents were called to the school, they were dismayed to discover that some teachers had already started calling him a female name.

“They said the child is within their rights to do this,” his father said. “We were like, ‘No, wait, don’t put him on a path we are really frightened of, we do not know where this path leads’.

“The school was in a difficult position [as] they were following guidelines from the council which seemed to say go along with the child’s wishes. It was a horrible time.”

A meeting with the school was followed by one attended by representatives from the school and the local council. The family asked Stella O’Malley, a psychotherapist who runs a gender dysphoria network, to attend.

O’Malley said the south Wales case was far from isolated and that parents grappling with the issue were often subject to “high-handed, inappropriate behaviour” by schools and councils.

“So many distressed parents have contacted me and said ‘the treatment my child is getting is not appropriate’,” O’Malley said. “These are loving parents, they are not delinquent parents and they are not being listened to. Schools are putting boys in girls’ changing rooms without liaising fully with the parents. They are presuming they know better.”

It was suggested at the second meeting that the boy meet an advocate from a charity to talk about his feelings. “We were told that would be someone neutral, who would give him a voice,” said his father.

But when the parents read notes from the meeting with the advocate and were told by their son what had been said, they were horrified. According to a legal letter seen by this newspaper, the boy told his parents that the advocate had said that it was his “human right to be called whatever he wants” and that if his name was not changed on the school register “arse would be kicked big time”. The advocate is also alleged to have told the child that he should try wearing girls’ clothes.

At one point the school asked the parents for a “timeline” to try to resolve the situation, and mentioned consulting the local council for legal advice. The family decided they had no option but to hire their own lawyers. “It was only then that they backed down,” the father said.

In his challenge to the council on their guidance, Paul Conrathe, of Sinclairslaw, acting for the family, cited emerging evidence that children allowed to “socially transition” in school — for example, change their name, wear the clothes of the opposite sex — may be more likely to go on to take puberty blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, and once over 18 undergo surgery….

Tanya Carter, spokeswoman for Safe Schools Alliance UK, which supported the family, said: “We are appalled that legal action has again had to be taken against a local authority’s dangerous guidance.

“Social transition is the first step on the path to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and irreversible surgery. This should only be embarked on with the agreement of those with parental responsibility for a child and after extensive consultation with mental health professionals.

“Sadly this is not an isolated issue. We are repeatedly contacted by parents with similar stories. We are seeing an explosion in contacts from parents in both Wales and Scotland; following the release of new so-called trans inclusion guidance in Scotland and the new RSE framework in Wales, we would expect to see further legal challenges.”

At least the parents here have the wherewithal and the backing to fight this process. I'm not sure that would be true in Scotland now.