Teaching Transition: Safe Schools Gets Worse

When I was in primary school I had to get a permission slip signed so that I could learn from a nun about the strange new places I would start growing hair. But now it seems schools in Victoria can help young children change genders without their parents even knowing, as part of the Safe Schools program.

Disturbingly, it took an American, Amanda Prestigiacomo from The Daily Wire, to bring this to public attention (where’s a Daily Tele columnist when you need one, are they all spending the day raking through the ashes of Fairfax?). While the article headline “Australian Schools Say They’ll Facilitate Gender Changes For 6-Year-Olds” is misleading, it does raise serious questions.

The part of the Guide Supporting Student Affirm Transition (GSSAF) that is causing most concern is the following:

• Assess the support given by a student’s family members or carers, and think through the needs of any siblings, especially those attending the same school. If a student does not have family or carer support for the process, a decision to proceed should be made based on the school’s duty of care for the student’s wellbeing and their level of maturity to make decisions about their needs. It may be possible to consider a student a mature minor and able to make decisions without parental consent. 

This is not about confidentiality or protecting the child from a potentially family situation. A parent would notice if a school follows the GSSAF guide and their child dresses and socialises differently, attends different classes and activities, and oh yeah, has a different name.  Plus the news of a transgender student would instantly do the rounds of the canteen mum set, and once they know, everyone will know.

So the child’s family knows, how does the school assess family support? Do they have family consultations or rely on a mopey tween complaining “my parents don’t understand me”?

Will schools provide help for parents who don’t understand transgenderism or write them of as bigots and deal only with the child? (It’s not the school’s job to educate you!) This would be a horrifying scenario as it would rob the child of potential support during such a vulnerable time.

The leftist mob is pushing the age when children can decide they are transgender younger and younger. What if a parent is fine with their child being transgender but wants to wait until they are older than 6 to start making life-changing choices? Will leftist teachers start reporting these as ‘unsafe homes’?

To be clear, the guide is not suggesting in any way that children should be given any gender changing drugs or surgery. Lord knows schools can’t even give out painkillers these days – there was a very lucrative black market trade in Panadol Menstrual at my high school. But can we trust individual radical teachers not to become empowered by this guide, now implemented in 300 schools across Victoria, and start taking matters into their own hands if they feel the child is not ‘supported’ enough and slip them some ‘special’ pills?

Transgender and gender-questioning children need family input and support for their decisions; not needed is some English Major ‘teaching while they work out what to do in life’ diagnosing and renaming other people’s children.

NB. Alarmingly, on the author list alongside the Marxist Roz Ward is Dani Wright Toussaint, the militant activist who has pushed themselves onto every LGBT group in Perth and has the whole community living in terror of their PC reign. The self-described gender-non-conforming female body person describes themself as being in a ‘same-sex, similar gender relationship’.  I’m old enough to remember when she was just a lesbian. But I suppose Tumblr makes fools of us all.