The UK will be rolling out new guidance next week on how school teachers should handle gender transitions among children. Because the guidance hasn’t been released yet it’s not exactly clear what it will say but the Guardian is reporting that it will require teachers to inform parents of any gender transition involving their children.

Teachers will be forced to tell parents that their child is questioning their gender even if the young person objects under new guidance for schools in England, the equalities minister has indicated.

Kemi Badenoch said that the guidance, which is expected to be published this week, will ensure that parents know what is “going on with their children” at school.

Under the new plans, headteachers are expected to be told that parents must always be consulted if a child wants to be called another name, or wear a different uniform. It has also been suggested that schools will not be able to use the child’s new preferred pronouns until parents give their consent.

Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch (who also holds the title of Secretary of State for Business and Trade) was interviewed Sunday and advised people parents had a right to know what was going on with their kids at school:

Ms Badenoch said “what is right is that parents know what is going on with their children at school”…

She added: “There’s quite a lot of confusion about what the law says and it is important that parents are aware of what’s going on with their children and what’s happening to them at school, so what we’re doing is making sure we have robust guidance that’s going to be able to stand up to scrutiny. That will be coming shortly.”

Here’s the interview in question. She’s not really giving away exactly what will be in the guidance but she did say, “It’s not for teacher’s to parent. It’s for parents to parent” which certainly sounds promising.

Naturally, this didn’t go over well with the left. There are already people suggesting teachers should ignore the guidance.

If someone who’s still at school feels more comfortable opening up to a teacher rather than their parents with such a sensitive matter, then there’s a good reason for it. That reason is abusive parents.
Any responsible teacher will ignore this guidance.

— Tamara Marie 🧜🏼‍♀️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💜 (@WelshQueen5) July 16, 2023

I believe this guidance isn’t intended to be of the optional variety. This is policy that schools will be required to follow. Anyone choosing to ignore it may find themselves out of a job.

No doubt there are some parents who are abusive and terrible to their children but as a matter of policy it doesn’t make much sense to assume that’s the case for the majority of parents. The law should be on the side of the legal guardian who is responsible for the child, not a bunch of teachers who have no responsibility once the student passed through their grade. But if you click on that tweet above you’ll see there are dozens of responses suggesting that parents are monsters and teachers are better suited to deal with this.

I wonder if these people realize that it’s possible for the abuse to run the other way. Back in February I wrote about a genuine horror story where an elementary school teacher in Long Island, New York was accused of pressuring a young girl to identify as a boy to the point that she became suicidal.

Debra Rosenquist — a 5th-grade teacher at Terryville Road Elementary School in Port Jefferson Station — started calling the 9-year-old Leo and using opposite gender pronouns toward the beginning of the 2021-’22 school year, according to a lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Court by the child’s parents last month.

The parents say they were only clued in about what was happening in January 2022, when the school principal called them telling them their child – referred to in court papers as A.V. – had drawn a picture of a girl, writing “I wanna kill myself” and “I feel sad like a lot,” the filing claims.

The principal also informed the parents that A.V. had even met with the school psychologist telling the mental health worker that she “was confused about her gender identity,” the court papers say.

Despite Rosenquist, 62, having referred to the student “for months at that point” as Leo, it was only during the Jan. 27, 2022 call that the parents were asked for the first time if this name was okay, the suit claims.

As a result of this teacher deciding to trans a child without the knowledge or permission of her parents, she became suicidal and once she was moved out the classroom she was bullied by other kids.

It sounds like the UK is doing the right thing here but I guess we’ll have to wait and see until next week when the guidance is officially released.