Parent Council Meeting June 2024

For parent Council meeting 

I am opening this as a discussion. I do not expect a decision made tonight. I think there should be follow up meetings after the results of the recent RSHP consultation. I also want you to know we were meant to have a retired depute principal educational psychologist with us tonight and she is prepared to come to a follow up meeting either in person or online. Also I would like it noted that any follow up meeting should be when xx is available because I know he wanted to speak. I wish him long life. The outcome for tonight might be that we ask the Rep Council look into this and make an informed decision about religious education in the school.

OK.

Our children are being taught an ideology that I am deeply concerned about. Our children are being taught something that is NOT mandatory. This Jewish school has a choice to NOT teach any of it. It is not mandatory. 

I would like to briefly mention that whilst I believe children should be taught about sex education, I find the current RSHP to be age inappropriate and extremely unnecessarily graphic. I agree with many others, that in it's current form, the sex education part of the RSHP is not fit for purpose and is adversely affecting our children. 

Some of the people involved in the making of the Scottish RSHP are very biased. Our government took advice from biased sources and people with nefarious backgrounds. One Dr the SNP took advice from wants to "break down the barrier between sexuality and childhood."¹ He does this by quoting advocates of bringing sexuality into childhood and not criticising their views, before quoting Michel Foucault’s complaint that "age of consent laws are a result of the artificial and undesirable barrier between childhood and sexuality". This Dr, Dr Morrison, was an advisor on the sex education lessons.

I am not here to discuss the over sexualised part though. I am here tonight only to discuss the gender ideology part of the curriculum. As I understand, Calderwood only does the bare minimum and doesn't use outside resources. Although this sounds like a solution, the teachings that are done still have a number of issues that conflict with Jewish values, learning and reality.

As a Jewish Primary School, your vision, values and curriculum are underpinned by our Jewish values. 

This ideology goes against the Jewish teaching about the soul. Teaching Jewish kids there could potentially be something wrong with them which requires sterilising them is antisemitic. In Bereshit, it says "male and female. He made them". So why should we be teaching kids this and then teaching them there are many sexes?

As Rebbitzen Esther Gellie² says “The Orthodox Jewish community is sex-segregated based on biological sex, not “gender identity,” and this distinction between men and women is integral to the entire body of Jewish law by which Orthodox Jews live. Men are separate from women. One can’t become the other. 

So when a man in a secular society “identifies as a woman,” and then claims that he is also an Orthodox Jewish woman, that is a direct affront to all Orthodox women. Specifically, it is a campaign against women’s right to modesty and to not have men invade their privacy. It is a campaign against other people’s religious beliefs. It destabilises the right of others to practice their religion.”

Also, as one community Rabbi says

"Hashem who is the essence of all good would not put the wrong soul in the wrong body in a way that the person would have to go through numerous medical procedures and suffering to make a body change"

Another Rabbi points out:-

"When you ask about the Jewish view on matters of gender identity it is hard to answer this when our children are growing up in a secular society that doesn’t necessarily work in harmony with Jewish values or for that matter In harmony with any religious tradition."

We cannot simultaneously tell children to be their best selves and use what G-d gave them to be happy and confident in themselves at the same time as telling them that they can be any little girl or boy that they want to be. We cannot be telling them that little boys can be little girls with a penis or little girls can be little boys with a vagina but not be telling them that in order to do that, you have to fundamentally, physically, medically and socially change your entire soul and being with surgery and medication that causes irreversible damage. 

Parents of faith are sometimes written off as transphobic fundamentalists no matter how supportive and loving we try to be. We often find that our voices are not as valued as parents of no particular faith. 

The point here is that this is a Jewish School that is meant to be upholding Jewish values. Gender ideology is in direct conflict with the Jewish teaching about the soul and has no place in a denominational school. 

Some Catholic schools are using a different approach which is more in line with the bible and as a Jewish school we have a duty to protect our children from dangerous adult ideologies and agendas and as a Jewish school we should not be promoting this ideology as fact. An ideology which heralds from terrible beginnings with John Money³ and the tragedy of the Reimer Family. 

The impact of teaching gender ideology in schools has been catastrophic for many families. It has been afforded a gilded platform and due to lobby groups such as Stonewall and LGBTyouth, schools have been told they must celebrate and affirm trans ideation. 

Firstly Stonewall stands accused of campaigning against women’s rights⁴ as defined in the Equality Act, and of bullying those with whom it disagrees⁵, out of jobs.

LGBTyouth was set up by a man who is in jail for running Scotland’s biggest peadophile ring⁶ using his organisation as cover. The organisation are still under investigation⁷ for inappropriate behaviour towards young boys⁸. Some of those same staff from that time, still work there. The victim involved with the recent case points out that:-

"LGBTYyouth provide opportunities for young people ages 13-25 and their peers to meet’ 

Why is the allowed? This is a basic safeguarding failure"

Schools should not be taking advice from these organisation. Schools should not be signposting to these organisations.

Additionally due to the scandal regarding a trustee of the charity Mermaids⁹ resigning after reports he spoke at a conference organised by a group that promotes support for paedophiles and the other dreadful issues there, plus the scandal of the abuse of children at Tavistock¹⁰, the gender clinic in London in which ideological concerns took priority over clinical practice and similarly with Sandyford, the clinic in Glasgow, with all of this happening, an independent review was triggered carried out by Dr Hilary Cass. 

The Cass Review¹¹ states that social transition is not a neutral act, it locks the child in a fixed state and could possibly lead to unnecessary medical and surgical consequences. Adults should not be coercing children through the language used in the RSHP to think that they can be the opposite sex. Using compelled pronouns is not grounded in reality and it is not properly safeguarding children.

Again, this Jewish school has a choice to NOT teach any of it. It is not mandatory.

There is no proper scientific evidence to show that children can be born in the wrong body and to tell children that to fully be yourself you need to change yourself so wholly, is abhorrent. Dysphoria exists but presenting to a child that changing sex will help, is an affirmation only route. This is a dangerous path. Data now shows that suicidal ideation increases¹² after transition¹³. Evidence also shows there is no such thing as a trans brain¹⁴ and it is not innate.

As Dr Jenny Cunningham states¹⁵

"The Scottish government’s sex education curriculum in primary 

schools exposes children as young as age 6–7 to the language of 

gender identity: transgender, cisgender (i.e., not trans-identifying), 

Most children will only have developed 

a stable self-identity as a boy or girl at age 4–6. Therefore, 

introducing this kind of gender terminology can be extremely 

confusing for children."

The curriculum states that some people can sometimes not feel like the sex they were assigned and tells children they can be any boy or girl they want to be.

 

This is damaging to children, especially vulnerable ones with comorbidities such as autism. Children with autism¹⁶ experience puberty in a different and often distressing way, sensory issues can make the changes very difficult to deal with. For the school to then tell these children that their uncomfortable difficult puberty feelings are because maybe they are in the wrong body is a serious safeguarding issue.¹⁷

Did you know that in the UK there was a 4000% increase in referrals to gender identity clinics, of them 76% were girls and 48% of them had autism? 

There are other comorbidities such as adhd, depression, sexual assault survivor, eating disorders, OCD and many others which must be taken into account before thinking about socially transitioning a child. Studies¹⁸ suggests that children who claim a transgender identity and undergo early social transition rarely change their minds, at least into their early teen years. If left alone over 80% of these children will desist, meaning they will revert to their biological sex. 

Furthermore, telling children that sex is assigned at birth is disingenuous and confusing. Mother's already know from 10wks what sex their baby is going to be, bar chromosomal abnormalities, and it's insulting and ludicrous to tell children that people don't know, so that when their baby is born they get to decide. Like some kind of genie computer game!! They teach sex is arbitrarily assigned at birth but apparently gender identity is fixed in the womb. It makes no sense.

The government says that they are teaching this because they want to teach inclusion. Guess what - kids ARE naturally inclusive. They play with any other kids irrespective of sex, gender, colour, religion, disability - unless they have been shown otherwise. Kids just want to play. Let them be kids. 

RSHP information must be balanced with facts not feelings. Gender ideology is based in queer theory which actively works to dismantle the family unit whilst blurring personal boundaries and lowering sexual boundaries.

Parents of faith are sometimes written off as transphobic fundamentalists no matter how supportive and loving we try to be. We often find that our voices are not as valued as parents of no particular faith. 

Safe Schools Alliance has recently sent a letter¹⁹ to the Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students, to raise concerns relating to the influence of experimental academic discourse on public policy.

Although it is too late for my children and thousands of families across the UK, I and many many others believe it is inappropriate for our children to be learning about this adult agenda and I once again implore the school and the community to remove this ideological pseudoscience propaganda from this Jewish Primary school.

Thank you.

__________________________

Petition: Change the way gender theory is presented in schools https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2043

Links from talk:-

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/concerns-over-doctor-appointed-scottish-26439239

https://www.gendermapper.org/post/trans-fall-for-that-good-ol-time-religion

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/05/dr-john-money-and-the-sinister-origins-of-gender-ideology/

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/10/23/the-rise-and-fall-of-stonewall/

https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/freedom-speech-simon-fanshawe-stonewall-trans-b1114871.html

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/29/courts-abuse-paedophile-ring-scotland

https://reduxx.info/exclusive-two-survivors-allege-they-were-groomed-sexually-exploited-by-staff-at-scottish-lgbt-youth-charity/

https://twitter.com/wundt_vil/status/1605185309435891712

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63137873

.https://swiftpress.com/book/time-to-think/

https://cass.independent-review.uk/publications/interim-report/

https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/transitioning-procedures-dont-help-mental-health-largest-dataset-shows

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01743-6

https://www.buttonslives.news/p/debunked-the-transgender-brain-sex

Dr Jenny Cunningham https://1drv.ms/b/s!AvE_eTlrDJFNgWXdYOC3FZWKZ_Bi?e=5SFCSj

https://www.verywellhealth.com/gender-dysphoria-and-autism-4134405

https://www.buttonslives.news/p/how-autistic-traits-can-be-mistaken

https://segm.org/early-social-gender-transition-persistence

https://safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2023/11/13/academic-experiments-and-child-safeguarding/

__________________________

Extra links and information 

Transgender Ideology in Scottish Schools is a critique of Scottish government guidance, and third party organisations’ promotion of social and medical transitioning in Scottish schools. A must read for parents, grandparents, teachers, headteachers and concerned individuals. Download the pamphlet here

https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/asleep-at-the-wheel/

https://www.transgendertrend.com/autism-gender-identity-introduction/

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-trans-ideology-took-over-our-schools/

The Scottish Union for Education aims to involve more people from communities, including parents, grandparents and educators, to improve Scottish educational establishments as places of learning rather than sites of activism.