'Teachers Are Being Bullied': Woman Fired for Not Transitioning 8-Year-Old with Gender Confusion
A former primary school teacher in the U.K. is defending herself in court after she was fired for refusing to treat an eight-year-old girl as a boy.
The teacher, who's just being called "Hannah" to protect the identity of "Child X", said she had serious concerns when "Child X" began to socially transition and was allowed to use bathrooms and changing rooms of the opposite sex.
The Christian teacher was told by administrators that she had to call the young child by their preferred pronouns under the guidance of a controversial LGBT charity, Stonewall Champion.
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"All staff were required to go on trans awareness training in the new school year which simply seemed to reassure staff that the only right thing to do was to 'affirm' children in their chosen gender," Hannah told Fox News.
"There was no consideration or indication that this approach might cause any harm. It seemed the message was that it was better for the child's mental and emotional health to go along with it," she continued.
But Hannah shared concerns with the school's headteacher about the welfare of the child and other pupils at the school. She believed that "affirming" the child's gender disorder could lead to the child making irreversible changes to their bodies.
"I shared concerns about the long-term effects of 'affirmation,' how kids can end up eventually being led in a direction which convinces them they are in a wrong body and then they can take irreversible measures to change their appearance and effectively destroy their own body," she said. "I tried to explain how influential trusted adults are in steering these kids and giving them wrong messages, especially when they are so young and uncritical. They believe what we tell them."
The Christian teacher claims she was then fired and reported to regulators for blowing the whistle on the school's "trans-affirming" policy when she consulted her lawyers about it, according to the Christian Legal Center, which is supporting her case.
She is now taking legal action against the school and Nottinghamshire County Council for claiming unfair dismissal, victimization for whistleblowing, and discrimination on the grounds of her Christian beliefs.
Hannah told an Employment Tribunal at Nottingham Justice Centre Tuesday that the extreme LGBTQ ideology is influencing the schools' policies and that her dismissal for wanting to protect vulnerable children was an overreach and now puts her in the position of never being able to teach again.
"Like all teachers at the school, I owed a safeguarding duty to Child X," she said before the hearing. "I followed all the correct procedures, I backed all of my concerns with expert evidence, and believed the action I took was in the public interest."
"It is because I care so much about children that I am taking this action. This isn't about me simply trying to prove that I am right, but about the safety of seriously distressed children," she continued.
"Teachers are being bullied not to question trans-affirming policies but evidence shows they put the welfare of children at serious risk," Hannah added.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said, "The Department for Education must look closely at this case and take appropriate action to protect teachers, who often hold Christian beliefs on these issues, from being hounded out of the profession for opposing or even questioning transgender ideology."
