Artigo original publicado no The Times
Nicola Woolcock
Some schools in Devon and Cornwall allow children to wear breast binders, against government trans guidance.
Schools are ignoring government guidance and drawing up trans policies that allow children to wear breast binders or use toilets that match their gender identity.
Analysis of more than 600 equality and trans policies has found confusion and misrepresentation of laws relating to sex and gender. One school trust advised teachers to assist girls using breast binders while on school trips and to allow students to sleep in bedrooms suiting their gender identity if they were trans.
Government guidance says schools should not accept all requests for social transition and should involve parents in any decision that is made, while toilets and changing rooms should remain single sex.
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has told parliament that parents should not be excluded from decisions taken by a school or college relating to requests for a child to “socially transition” to the opposite gender.
A dossier was compiled by the network Protect and Teach, which is concerned about gender ideology in schools. It analysed the policies of more than 600 mainstream state schools in Devon and Cornwall and shared its findings with The Telegraph.
The network claimed that 73 per cent of schools in Devon and 62 per cent in Cornwall were incorrectly representing equality laws in their policies.
A number of the school policies stated that children “as young as five” can show signs of gender dysphoria and that biological sex “is assigned at birth, depending on the appearance of the infant”. One grammar school defined sex as “a person’s understanding and experience of their own gender identity”.
A trust which runs eight primaries in Devon and Cornwall, including two Church of England schools, said that staff should “not disclos[e] a person’s LGBTQ+ identity to any pupils, staff, parents or third parties without their permission” and that any communication with parents “will only be undertaken with the pupil’s consent”.
It said staff will use any name of the child’s choosing, including changing the register, and will “use their best endeavours” to ensure students can use toilets and changing rooms matching their “gender identity”.
Breast binding is also noted in the policies of another trust which runs 15 academies. It notes that breast binding “can be hot, uncomfortable and restrictive but very important to their psychological and emotional wellbeing”. PE teachers are told to monitor students and “discreetly” offer breaks from exercise in case the binder impairs breathing.
It tells teachers they must “validate the young person’s identity as it is now and support any changes that may arise as they come to explore their identity further”.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We are absolutely clear about the importance of biological sex, particularly in the context of safeguarding, and the role parents must play in decisions about their children.
“Schools and colleges are expected to follow all guidance issued by the government, whether it is statutory or not. Our guidance is clear that in nearly every case schools should not support the social transition of primary-aged children, including not using pronouns that do not align with the child’s sex.”
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