“Good afternoon, girls.” For this seemingly innocuous greeting pronounced in front of her class, moreover in a girls’ school in Great Britain, a teacher was first recalled by the management, then subjected to disciplinary proceedings and finally left at home after the expiry of the his annual contract. This also happens in the United Kingdom grappling with the debate and institutional decisions on gender dysphoria, the discomfort of those who feel their identity is different from their biological sex, of those who were born a man but feel like a woman or vice versa.
The story emerges just as the government is grappling with new guidelines, due within weeks, aimed at educational institutions on the issue of transgender students. The teacher’s testimony, reported by Mail on Sunday and Times, is known to have been released as part of an independent work, commissioned by the Health Service and conducted by consultant pediatrician Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health , with the aim of “formulating recommendations on the services provided to children and young people who are exploring their gender identity or experiencing gender incongruence”. The story seems to date back to 2021 and the professor, a teacher in a private school worth 20 thousand pounds a year (23 thousand euros) says that everything happened after an assembly on “diversity and inclusion”, on genders and pronouns. After her greeting – “good afternoon, girls” – some students, whose age is around 11, rebelled, claiming that “not all of them here identify themselves as females”. The next day, the students wrote their names on the blackboard and chose the pronouns, masculine or feminine, with which to be identified. Someone decided that it was preferable to ess * / them (they or them, in English). And the next day a protest even started at lunch, after the religion teacher refused to accept the request, while the protagonist of the story warned the girls that if they really wanted to be identified differently, she would have to involve their parents . Conclusion: call to the professor from the management, request for an apology, which the director brought in the teacher’s place, in her presence – a circumstance defined as “humiliating” by the person concerned – and finally no renewal of the contract upon expiry. «No one here would like to hurt you and you are all (in English generically all) really loved by us – said the director – I’m sorry you got angry (in English it is neutral) and we didn’t mean to offend. We are sorry that you have been disappointed”.
In the UK, at the moment, children and teenagers can legally have medically based treatments, such as the prescription of puberty blockers, but gender reassignment surgeries are banned up to the age of 18. The report from the think tank Policy Exchange found that 40% of 150 responding schools in England have so far let students change their identifying gender without parental consent. Now the Ministry of Education will produce guidelines on the subject of social transition within a few weeks. According to advances from the Times, those who identify with a gender other than that of birth will not be able to share changing rooms and showers with the opposite sex. Families should be advised if she/the student wishes to be identified by a different name or wear another uniform. Ban on playing in women’s teams in case of contact sports, more relaxed rules for other sports.
