Teacher ‘sacked after refusing to treat eight-year-old as a boy’ over concerns for child’s welfare
- She was instructed by the director to go along with the student’s wishes
A teacher dismissed for refusing to treat an eight-year-old girl as a boy will this week raise serious concerns about the child’s welfare at an employment tribunal.
She was tasked by the school principal before the start of the school year to respond to the student’s wish to ‘socially transition’ under the guidance of controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.
It meant calling her by a boy’s name and using male pronouns, and it also meant an ultimately futile attempt to keep her gender transition a secret from classmates.
The child, supported by her parents, was allowed to wear a boys’ uniform and use the boys’ toilets and changing rooms. Troubled by the situation, the teacher, referred to as ‘Hannah’ for legal reasons, raised the matter as a safety issue, believing it would endanger the child and other students in the short and long term.
‘We hear a lot about protected characteristics – what about a child’s right to grow up?’ Hannah told The Mail on Sunday. “It’s heartbreaking.”
The teacher, referred to as ‘Hannah’ for legal reasons, raised the issue as a safety concern, believing it would endanger the child and other students in the short and long term.
She was instructed by the school principal before the start of the school year to respond to the student’s wish to ‘socially transition’ under the guidance of LGBT charity Stonewall
She added that children are supported by teachers and schools to believe they are in the ‘wrong body’. She is bringing a case against the primary school and Nottinghamshire County Council, claiming she was a victim of whistleblowing and was unfairly dismissed in 2022.
The case starts in Nottingham on Tuesday. She said her resignation, to protect vulnerable children from harm, has torn her life apart and left her facing the prospect of never teaching again. She had had five happy years at the school and her record was impeccable. But she noted with dismay how “education was becoming increasingly politicized.”
In 2021, the school adopted training methods pioneered by Stonewall, which urges teachers to remove “all unnecessary gender-related language” from the classroom.
Hannah believes the toxicity surrounding the transgender debate has created a climate of fear in schools. “No one is willing to speak out or challenge decisions made without discussion,” she said. She now works at a sandwich shop “where we can talk about these issues more freely.”
She added: ‘Teachers are bullied into not questioning trans-affirming policies, when evidence shows that the actual result of the approach is to seriously endanger the welfare of children. I am committed to pursuing justice.”
Andrea Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Hannah, said: ‘For years, parents and teachers who have raised safety concerns about these issues have been ignored and disbelieved.’