A teacher at a British primary school who was sacked for refusing to treat an eight-year-old girl as a boy will be telling an employment tribunal this week about her serious concerns for the childs welfare.
The teacher had been ordered by the headteacher to go along with the wishes of the pupil to ‘socially transition’ under the guidance of controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.
In 2021 the school adopted Stonewall’s training methods which urges teachers to ‘remove any unnecessarily gendered language’ from the classroom.
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This meant the teacher was expected to call the girl by a boy’s name and use male pronouns. It also involved, what turned out to be a futile attempt to keep the girls gender change a secret from classmates.
The Mail Online reports: The child, backed by her parents, was allowed to wear a boy’s uniform and to use the boys’ lavatories and changing rooms. Troubled by the situation, the teacher, referred to as ‘Hannah’ for legal reasons, raised the matter as a safeguarding issue, believing it endangered the child and other pupils in the short and long-term.
‘We hear a lot about protected characteristics – what about the right of a child to grow up?’ Hannah told The Mail on Sunday. ‘It is heartbreaking.’
She added that children are being supported by teachers and schools to believe that they are in the ‘wrong body’. She is bringing a case against the primary school and Nottinghamshire County Council, claiming she was victimised for whistleblowing and unfairly dismissed in 2022.
The case begins in Nottingham on Tuesday. She said her sacking, for wanting to protect vulnerable children from harm, has torn her life apart and left her with the prospect of never being able to teach again. She had enjoyed five happy years at the school and her record was unblemished. But she noted with dismay how ‘education became increasingly politicised’.
Hannah believes the toxicity surrounding the transgender debate has created a climate of fear in schools. ‘Nobody is prepared to speak out or challenge decisions made without discussion,’ she said. She now works in a sandwich shop ‘where we are more freely able to discuss these issues’.
She added: ‘Teachers are being bullied into not questioning trans-affirming policies when evidence shows that the actual result of the approach is to put the welfare of children at serious risk. I am determined to pursue justice.’
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