Girl Driven Out of School In England by Mob For Questioning Transgender Ideology

In this article, "the sixth form" refers to the final two years of secondary education, so the last two years of high school.

A girl who argued that biological sex is real after a talk about transphobia felt forced to leave her school after pupils hounded her for challenging the views of a visiting speaker.

She was treated like a heretic for questioning a politician's assertions about sex, a teacher at the school said. The female member of the House of Lords visited the private girls' school, a Stonewall diversity champion, to talk about transphobia in parliament.

The girl told The Times: "The language she was using was implying critical theory took precedence over biological reality in defining women." She added: "When I questioned that, she said it wasn't an issue of semantics. She said trans people don't have basic human rights in this country. Afterwards I spoke to her and said I'm sorry if I came across as rude."

The pair parted amicably, the girl said. But on returning to the sixth form she was surrounded by up to 60 girls who shouted, screamed, swore and spat at her. She escaped and said she collapsed, unable to breathe properly.

Teachers were initially supportive but withdrew their backing after the other sixth formers accused the girl of transphobia. The teenager returned to school a few times but was told she would have to work in the library if she said anything provocative in lessons, and faced bullying and accusations of transphobia from pupils throughout the school. She also spent breaktimes and lunchtimes in the library. The girl left in December and is studying at home.

A teacher at the school said: "We know how these views are being silenced in the adult world through high-profile legal cases and the bullying and defamation of celebrities such as JK Rowling. This is also happening in schools."

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The teacher added: "It was probably somewhat naive of her not to realise that this is indeed 'an ideology' and one with which you're simply not allowed to disagree." The 18-year-old girl ended up denounced by other pupils in the school. The teacher said: "It is quite chilling to witness first hand how this ideology operates and grows."

He said: "It was the whispered and frequent use of the terms transphobe and transphobic during that after school activity that alerted me to the depressing fact that these girls were going along with the narrative that our heretic was, as far as they were concerned, indeed a heretic -- and that she was thoroughly deserving of the roasting that she had just received before caving in and running off in a panicked and hyperventilating state."

Staff were initially supportive but, after complaints from other sixth formers, ended up apologising for not maintaining a "safe space" in the sixth form.

The girl told The Times that she would have completed her A-levels at the school had it not been for the incident in October. "It made me think I was mad," she said. "Otherwise how could people turn on me so bitterly?"

posted by Ace at 03:09 PM

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