U-turn on trans toilets in schools: Parents force council to pull guidance allowing transgender pupils to use girls’ loos and dormitories
- Warwickshire County Council said it had withdrawn its ‘Trans toolkit’, which offered advice to 300 schools, and placed it under review
- Parents were furious that schools were being told to allow transitioning pupils to ‘sleep where they feel most comfortable’ and use whichever toilets they wanted
- The guidance is similar to that issued by Oxfordshire County Council which is currently the subject of a High Court challenge
Parents have forced a council to pull guidance to schools which allowed transgender pupils to use girls’ toilets and dormitories.
Warwickshire County Council said it had withdrawn its ‘Trans toolkit’, which offered advice to 300 schools, and placed it under review.
Parents were furious that schools were being told to allow transitioning pupils to ‘sleep where they feel most comfortable’ and use whichever toilets they wanted.
Tessa McInnes, 50, who has two children in Warwickshire schools, told the Times: ‘The equal rights of girls are simply discounted and disregarded in this guidance.
Stock image showing children going to school
‘If they express any discomfort about a male coming into their spaces, the girl is presented as transphobic and told to go and change somewhere else.
‘It’s outrageous and defies the Equality Act 2010.’
A spokesman for Warwickshire County Council said: ‘Trans is an evolving complex area. It is our duty to provide schools with guidance to ensure all pupils are able to be themselves and reach their full potential in an inclusive school environment, without fear of judgement and discrimination.
‘The toolkit was launched in January 2018 and is currently being reviewed.’
Secondary school girls on a dirt path in the woods during a cross country race
The guidance is similar to that issued by Oxfordshire County Council which is currently the subject of a High Court challenge.
A judicial review, brought by a 13-year-old girl and backed by the Safe Schools Alliance, a group of parents committed to safeguarding all students in line with equality legislation, is due to be heard this autumn.
The teenager is expected to argue that the guidance is unlawful because it gives her ‘no right to privacy from the opposite sex.’
The girl’s mother said: ‘The more my daughter reads that gender identity is more important than her status as a young woman, the more frustrated she becomes, because she knows that she is entitled to female-only spaces, to compete in female-only competitions and sleep in female-only dorms.’
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