A Scottish private school called social services on the parents of a teenaged student when they objected to the school’s socially transitioning her to male.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the girl’s mother, whose name was withheld to protect her daughter’s identity, claimed George Watson’s College in Edinburgh began treating her daughter as a male without informing her parents. When the parents, upon learning of this, told the school that a psychologist had recommended a “watchful waiting” approach toward their daughter’s confusion, the school ignored their wishes and had them investigated.
According to the newspaper, “‘Watchful waiting’ is an approach in which a child’s view of their gender is closely observed but without social or medical intervention. Evidence suggests that many children with gender issues will revert to identifying as a member of their biological sex as they become older.”
That is not, however, the view of LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS), which dominates both public and private education in Scotland. The government-funded “charity” — which, The Telegraph reported, spends 93 percent of its income “on staffing costs” — operates a charter scheme whereby it gives schools gold, silver, or bronze ratings “denoting their LGBTQ+ friendliness.” To earn a gold rating, as George Watson’s did, requires having an LGBT club; displaying Pride and trans flags; appointing students “LGBT champions”; and, of course, keeping parents from finding out that their children are being socially transitioned to another gender at school. The mother of a then-12-year-old autistic girl who was secretly taken down the trans road at another Scottish school called the whole thing “a state-funded radicalization of children.”
The George Watson’s student joined her school’s LGBT club and began the process of socially transitioning. According to The Telegraph:
Information the mother obtained from the school after making a Subject Access Request shows her daughter’s “preferred name” was changed on school systems after she said she was non-binary.
The child later said she identified as male, and the school adopted male pronouns in a move the mother said was kept from her.
Meeting records show the school said in late 2019 it would “be respecting his [the child’s] wishes to use the masculine pronouns” despite the fact that “mum and dad absolutely do not agree with the ‘positive affirmation approach’ that school is endorsing.”
The paper further wrote:
“We were repeatedly lied to by the school,” the mother said. “I feel that our child was just seen as a little guinea pig by the school and LGBT Youth Scotland.
“The school policies, which LGBT Youth Scotland help write, are set up to ensure parents are deliberately misled.
“We had received two expert opinions, including from a specialist in gender, not to challenge our child but that adults should basically turn a blind eye, and not affirm her.
“But these experts were repeatedly dismissed by teachers. They literally said to us on one occasion that LGBT Youth Scotland were the experts in this.”
She added: “Rather than engaging meaningfully with us, we were referred to social services by the school and investigated.
“Fortunately, they were sensible and it went no further, but the fact that this was deemed appropriate in the first place is outrageous.”
The social workers’ opinion that the school ought to follow the psychologist’s advice was, not surprisingly, also ignored by school officials, who not only continued affirming the girl’s gender choice but kept pestering social services to investigate further — fortunately, to no avail.
“Social and gender transitioning are amongst the most challenging and polarizing issues facing schools today,” a George Watson’s spokesman told the Telegraph. “We have always worked collaboratively with parents and apologize to those involved in this case for any distress caused by what are difficult and challenging circumstances.”
An LGBTYS spokesman, after noting that George Watson’s charter had expired in 2022, told the paper, “When it comes to advising on supporting trans pupils in schools we always refer to Scottish government guidance” — guidance “LGBTYS helped write,” observed the Telegraph.
But that guidance may be about to change, and not to LGBTYS’ liking. Last month, retired consulting pediatrician Hilary Cass released a National Health Service-commissioned report on medical treatment of minors’ gender issues that absolutely obliterated the “gender-affirming care” line, including the idea of socially transitioning children. By the end of April, Scottish gender clinics had stopped prescribing hormones and puberty blockers to minors, and the NHS announced that it would once more define “sex” as “biological sex” and prohibit transgender patients from being housed in spaces reserved for the opposite sex.
Scottish Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth — once so in the tank for the trans movement that she refused to declare the sex of Isla Bryson, a Scottish man who was convicted of raping two women before suddenly discovering he was female — is clearly feeling the pressure, too. In a November letter concerning the George Watson’s incident, she stated that when it comes to schools’ informing parents of students’ gender transitions, the student’s wishes “should be respected.” However, she “said last week that she was looking at implications of the Cass review into Scottish government’s guidance for schools,” the Telegraph reported May 1.
With the trans movement on the defensive, if not yet in retreat, in the United Kingdom, perhaps the days of the U.K.’s schools’ treating kids as guinea pigs in gender experiments are numbered. That’s one of the few trends sensible Americans hope will cross the Atlantic.
