‘Mum, dad’ banned under school guidelines

BOYS should dress up as girls as part of “non-gender-specific free play” and teachers should avoid terms like mum or dad according to guidelines created by the NSW teachers’ union.

• Teachers at exclusive girls school told to preach gender neutral
• Miranda Devine: Tolerance taking its toll
• Miranda Devine: Marxist agenda a red flag for not so safe schools
• Fred Nile vows to ditch government over ‘unsafe schools’ program

BOYS should dress up as girls as part of “non-gender-specific free play” and teachers should avoid terms like mum or dad when discussing parents — according to guidelines created by the NSW teachers’ union on how to deal with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex issues in the classroom.

It comes as a Sydney all-girls school where teachers were asked to not refer to students as “girls” ruled out enforcing the ban in the face of public outcry over political correctness gone mad.

Another strategy in the union guidelines includes displaying LGBTI posters, photographs and drawings in early childhood and primary school classrooms.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday attempted to get comment from the NSW Teachers Federation but was referred back to the document.

Cheltenham Girls High School yesterday posted a Facebook statement saying it would not ban the term “girls”.

Victoria’s Eltham High School recently hoisted a rainbow flag in support of the wider LGBTI community. Picture: Richard Serong

“The school has not, and will not, change the way students’ gender is referred to,” it said. Yet parents remain dismayed the school has signed up to the controversial Safe Schools program without telling parents. Dr Wendy Moran has three daughters who have attended CGHS, including her youngest in Year 12. She has joined a group of 20 concerned parents who have written letters to principal Susan Bridge, complaining about the program and the secretive way it was being introduced.

They point out the recent federal government review of Safe Schools requires “agreement of relevant parent bodies for schools to participate”.

Dr Moran said the school had not consulted parents.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday did not claim CGHS was a Safe Schools member, only that it was in the process of implementing the program.

However it has since been discovered it was listed as a member of the Safe Schools Coalition on its website in a public register of member schools. Cheltenham Girls was listed as one of 135 schools in NSW that had signed up. But two weeks ago the names of NSW schools were removed from the Safe Schools website, so parents can no longer see if their child’s school is a member.