The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-22)

The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 19

NEWS REVIEW

F

or many people, the story that

emerged last week of an

18-year-old girl who expressed

doubts about ‘‘transgender

ideology” and was bullied out

of school by her peers was no

doubt a shocking one. The girl,

who wants to remain anony-

mous, says that she was

“treated like a heretic” after she

questioned a female member of the

House of Lords who had come to the

school to speak about transphobia in par-

liament. The visitor used language that

the girl believed implied critical theory

took precedence over biological reality in

defining women. The incident prompted

her fellow pupils to turn on her — she

claims that a crowd of up to 60 girls

screamed, swore and spat at her. She has

since left the school.

JK Rowling and the education secre-

tary, Nadhim Zahawi, have come out in

support of the girl, whose case was made

public by a whistleblowing teacher.

Rowling criticised schools for pandering

to quasi-religious fanaticism; Zahawi said

her treatment was “hugely concerning”;

and invited teachers with similar con-

cerns to come forward.

While it is undoubtedly an extreme

example, the story is also evidence of

something that teachers like me know to

be true: that gender politics is causing

chaos in schools around the country,

leaving staff and pupils afraid to express

their views.

I have been a teacher for more than a

decade and, until recently, was a science

teacher at a secondary school in Oxford-

shire. I was also head of year 9, responsi-

ble for the pastoral care of about 150

pupils aged 13 and 14 while managing a

team of teaching staff who worked with

them. It was a job I enjoyed and believe

that I did well.

Last spring I was asked to handle the

case of a year 9 student who was ques-

tioning her identity; she no longer

wanted to be called by a girl’s name and

asked to be addressed using the pro-

nouns they and them.

This was not the first such incident at

the school. There was an older pupil who

had been born female and had in effect

transitioned — and was already being

called by a boy’s name.

The school had no clear written policy

about what to do in such cases. My first

response was to pick up the phone to the

year 9 girl’s home. I rang her mother to

try to find out more about the back-

ground; had the teenager spoken about

not wanting to be treated as a girl? It

turned out that it had been aired and a

therapist had been brought in.

The child’s mother said there was an

explicit instruction from the therapist

that she continue to be called by the

name she was given at birth and

addressed as female. There was a belief

that there were other psychological

issues to explore and the mother said it

was imperative the school follow the

same line as was being taken at home.

I relayed this to the teachers dealing

with this particular child and explained

the reasoning behind it. I said we could

not stop her friends from calling her a dif-

ferent name in school because that was

too complex to grapple with but as teach-

ers we would use the legal name that was

on the register.

My colleagues agreed, but soon after

some members of the teaching staff

began to experience hostility from the

pupils. The child’s class tutor, in particu-

lar, was targeted. One day he walked into

Pupils

get their

beliefs

from

TikTok

JK Rowling and

Nadhim Zahawi

have backed a

pupil bullied out

of school over

her views on

trans matters

The Sunday Times May 22, 2022 19

WALKING THE GENDER TIGHTROPE

class to find that water had been poured

all over his chair. On another occasion he

found the word “transphobe” scrawled

on the whiteboard. There were other out-

rageous incidents: he was constantly hec-

kled in class for “misgendering” her by

using the “wrong” pronouns, behaviour

that was difficult and disrespectful.

The tutor in question was experienced

but even so he was taken aback, con-

cerned enough to tell me what was hap-

pening. I decided to have a sit-down with

some of the pupils and hold what the

school calls a “restorative conversation”

— a discussion where both sides just air

their point of view.

The children arrived prepared: they

said they had watched TikTok videos and

clips on other social media sites where

films suggest that you can change sex,

that there are many different genders,

that it is cruel to deny a child who feels as

though they are in the wrong body.

We tried to address the situation

calmly. I have no ideological position on

the issue and felt that it would have been

wrong to come down too hard on either

side. We explained that the problem was

not that the teaching staff did not believe

the pupils, but that there were compli-

cated matters to consider, that the person

you believe you are now may not be the

person you want to be in ten years’ time

and that decisions made now could have

longer-term ramifications. I also

explained that it was not the school’s

place to override a parental decision.

The issue of gender identity is an

incredibly hard one for teachers to man-

age and the questions involved are highly

complex: should children be allowed

to transition without a parent’s

consent? What if they are under

16? How should we handle the

knock-on situations this raises

for sports, school trips, chang-

ing rooms?

I know from friends work-

ing in schools in Essex and

Northern Ireland that this is

what they are dealing with

day to day and doing so in an

atmosphere that is highly

charged: no one wants to

arent’s

nder

the

ises

ang-

ork-

nd

s

h

n

y

be called a bigot by the children in

their class.

At the end of the meeting I felt there

was an understanding from the pupils

that we were not being cruel, we were

simply saying to her: take it slowly, you

are only 14. Nevertheless, I decided to

raise the issue with my line manager, who

was also in charge of safeguarding, who

suggested I raise it with the head teacher.

The head took a different view to mine.

He saw no reason not to do what the child

wanted. I explained that I had no ideolog-

ical axe to grind but felt uncomfortable

about disobeying a parent’s request. We

discussed it and I agreed to leave it with

him while he deliberated the right path to

take. In the meantime we agreed that the

teaching staff would continue to use the

child’s female pronouns.

Over the course of the year, however, I

got a few calls from the mother complain-

ing that some teachers were calling the

girl by the name she had requested. The

girl would take her books home and her

chosen name would be written on the

front of them. The mother was con-

cerned and said she was being ignored. I

could see her point. But the staff were

reluctant to face the continuing resent-

ment from pupils in the class.

T

here had been a bit of a cultural shift

in the school by this point. The sixth

form lavatories were redone and

were made unisex. They were

labelled “gender neutral”. There

was some talk about painting the bollards

in rainbow colours to signal LGBT aware-

ness too. The school already had a mix-

and-match uniform: girls could wear

trousers or skirts.

Now the issue began to bubble up

more frequently in personal, social,

health and economic education

and science lessons too.

Some teenagers would say:

“Why can’t I be non-binary or

why can’t I be a boy?”

Children seemed to feel

emboldened, abso-

lutely certain that

there was only cor-

rect point of view.

The school seemed to be reinforcing this.

If a teenager questioned the prevailing

view among their peers and said: “You

can’t just become a boy, you can’t change

your sex”, then they could be sent to the

pastoral hub and it might be suggested

they undertake an LGBT course.

Around the same time, more children

in the lower years were starting to ques-

tion their gender identity. It began to feel

like a social contagion was spreading

through the school.

Eventually I decided that it was time to

move on. I kept quiet until I had a new

teaching job — I knew I would need a ref-

erence. Then I aired my concerns in my

exit interview. The head listened but

pointed out that the changes in the

school had been welcomed by some

LGBT pupils who had told him how much

they appreciated them.

I don’t blame the school for its chaotic

approach; the arguments about gender

identity and biological sex have become a

fearsome culture war. Teachers lack the

training and information to cope. Like

most parents facing the same questions,

they are afraid of doing something that is

not in a child’s best interests.

That is why it is imperative that the

Department for Education (DfE) gives

clear guidelines for schools on how to

tackle this problem; it should be a policy

that is evidence-based and universal.

That is the only way to calm the anger

bubbling up in classrooms and to allow

teachers to get on with their jobs.

I chose this profession because I

wanted to impart knowledge; that’s

about more than teaching my subject, it’s

considering a child’s wellbeing and their

mental health too. I believe that most

teachers feel the same way. But in the cur-

rent climate, this is becoming increas-

ingly hard to do.

We are under instruction from the DfE

to teach British values and to teach toler-

ance in particular. The idea that it is trans-

phobic to suggest that sex and gender are

different and to howl down opposition is

not tolerant, nor is it tolerant to brand a

teacher transphobic or to bully a pupil

out of school.

Interview by Sian Griffiths

Worried parents, angry teens and furious battles

over pronouns. An experienced teacher explains how

schools struggle to deal with transgender issues —

and why he felt he had no choice but to leave his job

Teachers

do not

have the

training

to cope

NEWS REVIEW

trousers or skirts.

Now the issue

more frequently

health and ec

and science les

Some teen

“Why can

why

Chil

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th

re

Ignore your dog’s

canine nature

and it could come

back to bite you

sharp teeth and a fight-or-

flight instinct, even the

cuddly cockapoos and lazy

labradors. A recent survey

found that we loved our pets

more than our other halves.

“We no longer recognise

that dogs are dogs,” says Sam

Gaines, head of companion

animals at the RSPCA. We

have a tendency to

anthropomorphise man’s

best friend. “Some [adults]

think of them as being either

small children or objects that

we can treat like toys —

dressing them up, for

instance. By doing that, we

lose that understanding that

these are dogs — they’re not

people,” Gaines says. She

explains that throwing our

arms around a dog, picking it

up and hugging it are human

expressions of love but

threatening to a dog.

Tulloch pointed to the

“scareyourdog” TikTok

hashtag, which has

16.8 million views. It is added

to videos of people

deliberately startling their

dogs. Often, if a dog is

tolerating behaviour —

perhaps mild harassment out

of misguided affection — we

assume they are OK with it,

says Tulloch. But we may be

missing important warning

signs: “Holding its ears back,

lip-smacking, panting and

showing whale eye [when the

whites of the eye become

more visible]” all show

increasing anxiety.

Lockdown may have made

the situation worse. When

demand for dogs outstripped

supply, many were brought in

from countries with high

numbers of strays, such as

Romania. Some arrived

illegally, or through small

rescue charities operating

informally, and were poorly

socialised.

James McNally, a solicitor

at Slee Blackwell, in Devon,

who specialises in dog-bite

compensation, has noticed a

huge increase in the past

three years. “We get no fewer

than five inquiries a day,” he

says. Large dogs such as

huskies and American

bulldogs tend to do the most

harm. Labradors knock

people over; greyhounds

chase smaller dogs, and

owners lose fingers trying to

prise them apart.

When you are being

attacked, there is no hard and

fast rule for how to respond,

says Graeme Hall, The

Sunday Times’s “Dogfather”

canine columnist and master

dog trainer. What you should

avoid — easier said than done

with a chihuahua hanging off

your ankle — is shouting,

screaming and waving your

arms around. In other words,

try not to behave like prey.

And never leave a dog

alone with a young child, Hall

says. “Even if you think it will

be fine and you think you

know the dog, dogs are

unpredictable.”

2018, Westgarth and her team

found that 80 per cent of

adults and 91 per cent of

children who had been bitten

by a dog were victims of the

family pet — a threefold rise in

20 years. While there isn’t a

full set of data on the past

four years, anecdotal

evidence suggests two years

of Covid lockdowns and a

pandemic puppy boom — the

dog population was

estimated to be 12 million in

2021 — may have exacerbated

the trend.

John Tulloch, a specialist in

veterinary public health at

Liverpool University and co-

author of the study, was

contacted by one hospital

that had noticed a marked

increase in dog-bite

admissions after the first

lockdown in 2020. Doctors at

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

in Liverpool were seeing up

to four or five a day. When

Tulloch’s team analysed the

admissions data, they found

at least five children and one

adult had been mauled to

death by dogs in the UK since

November 2021. Between

2015 and 2019 the yearly

average was three. One

theory to explain the rise is

that our nation of dog-lovers

has become a bit too cosy

with our canids and forgotten

that they’re still animals with

C

arri Westgarth has the

scars on her head from

when she was bitten by

her family pet, a docile

Jack Russell called Tosh,

at the age of two. She was

alone with the animal for only

a minute at her

Northamptonshire home

while her mother, Val, ran

upstairs for a nappy — but

that’s all it took.

Westgarth, 39, a lecturer in

human-animal interaction at

Liverpool University and the

author of The Happy Dog

Owner, has co-authored a

study showing that dog bites

have risen steadily in

frequency over two decades

in the UK and that most

happen at home. The results

debunk the idea that it is

poorly trained dogs or

particular aggressive breeds

that bite and instead suggest

our relationship with pets

could be to blame.

By analysing NHS hospital

admissions data from 1998 to

Greyhounds

chase smaller

dogs and

owners lose

fingers prising

them apart

Attacks in the home are on the

rise because we treat pets like

family, writes Madeleine Spence