Horrendous’ sex education lessons to be investigated by UK children’s commissioner
Reports of nine-year-old taught about rape ‘in detail’
Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, said she would be looking into the teaching of sex education
Tuesday July 05 2022, 3.30pm BST, The Times
The children’s commissioner has told of her shock on learning about the “horrendous” examples of sex education materials used in schools.
Dame Rachel de Souza told the commons education committee that she would be looking into the teaching of relationships and sex education (RSE).
It came after the Tory MP Miriam Cates, who sits on the committee, said constituents had written to her raising concerns about a nine-year-old taught “in detail” about rape.
She previously detailed examples of children shown dice with body parts written on them, to prompt them to suggest different sex positions, and children taught about rough sex, spanking and choking.
“Thoughtful and age-appropriate” materials were “absolutely critical”, De Souza said, and she had particularly looked at this where it concerned the….
The Ontario Human Rights Code is being used to silence concerned educators who speak up about inappropriate books in their Elementary school library. A teacher, Carolyn Burjoski, was removed from a virtual board meeting after her comments were deemed transphobic by the chair.
News Report About The School Board Meeting
During the meeting, Burjoski said, “Some of the books filling our libraries make it seem simple, or even cool to take puberty blockers or opposite-sex hormones.”
The teacher was interrupted by school board chair, Scott Piatkowski.
“I’m just getting a little concerned that your content may be problematic. I’m not sure exactly where you’re headed, but I would caution you to make sure that you’re not saying anything that would violate the human rights code.”
Bringing up a book titled The Other Boy by MG Hennessey, Burjoski said it chronicles the medical transition of a person “born female and now identifies as a boy.”
According to information in the teacher’s presentation, there are 106 copies of this book in K-6 WRDSB libraries.
She told the school board that after a character named Shane is told by a doctor that taking puberty blockers and starting testosterone will make him infertile in the future, the character responds with “it’s cool.”
Burjoski said that is “a very typical adolescent response.”
“This book is misleading because it does not take into account how Shane might feel later in life about being infertile. This book makes very serious medical interventions seem like an easy cure for emotional and social distress,” the teacher said.
She was stopped again by Piatkowski, who said her comments may violate the province’s protections for gender expression and gender identity.
“I believe the delegation is talking about age appropriateness,” said Trustee Cindy Watson, who was in favour of allowing Burjoski to continue speaking.
Eventually her 10 minute presentation was cut short by the chair.
It gets worse.
From her website “Cancelled Teacher” Carolyn Burjoski explains what happened after the school board meeting.
The day after the meeting, I was ordered to stay home from school and barred from speaking to my colleagues and students. Because of a Covid lockdown, I hadn’t seen my students since December 2021, and I would never see them again.
Shortly after the meeting, the Board filed a formal complaint against me and hired an outside Firm to conduct a disciplinary investigation, threatening various punishments. I could not believe what was happening to me.
That week, I became the center of a national media frenzy fuelled by statements made by the Board Chair on radio, TV and social media. He attributed to me remarks that I did not make, characterized them as hateful, and accused me of violating the Human Rights Code. The Board quickly removed the meeting video from its website so people could not hear for themselves what I actually said. The Board Chair’s harmful statements about me spread like wildfire over the internet, and I received a tidal wave of online abuse.
Burjoski is taking legal action for defamation and violation of her free speech rights.
Until recently the term “conversion therapy” was used to refer to the barbaric and pointless practice of trying to turn a gay person straight. Of late it has been widened to include talking therapy that explores why a person’s gender identity is at odds with their biological sex. President Joe Biden used that broader meaning in an executive order “advancing equality for LGBTQI+ Individuals”, on June 15th. The order is designed to tackle discrimination suffered by “LGBTQI+” young people, which is laudable. But it refers to them as a single group (offering no definition of “queer” or “intersex”), which raises problems. It describes conversion therapy as “a discredited practice that research indicates can cause significant harm”, yet fails to specify what it means when applied to trans-identifying children.
Some therapists who work with children with gender dysphoria worry that this could be interpreted to mean therapists should not investigate why someone feels distressed about their biological sex. This is not the same as trying to convince someone they are not gay. Sexual orientation and gender identity are different. Sexual orientation tends to be innate and fixed; gender identity can be nebulous and changeable. It also, increasingly, prompts medical interventions that can have irreversible, harmful effects. It has long been held that people with gender dysphoria should have therapy before drugs.
[Source: The Economist]
Clinicians and counselors will lose their jobs because of this confused embrace. Or they will decide to forgo doing a thorough job. Either way, their patients suffer.
I repeat what I said in an earlier post. Who is the Conversion Therapist?
Is it the one who is trying to help a person align their thoughts and feelings with the body they were given at birth or the professional who disregards the body and proposes irreversible radical surgeries combined with life-long hormone treatments in hopes of aligning the outer body with a patient’s inner desires?
