Trans rights: NSW Education gives principals power to overrule parents on children’s names
Legal advice shows that if a transitioning child wants to adopt a new name for their preferred gender, principals can decide whether or not to use it, regardless of a parent’s wishes
NSW
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Public school principals have the power to overrule parents who do not want their child to start transitioning to the opposite sex by changing the name they use at school.
Official NSW Department of Education legal advice to principals said if either one or both parents objected to a boy or girl adopting a different name in line with their new gender, the principal would be given the power to decide.
“If either or both parents object to the change to the way the first name is recorded by the school, the principal needs to make a decision about what is in the child’s best interests,” it said.
The same advice said that if both parents agreed with their son or daughter using an opposite-sex name, that new name must be used. “If both parents consent to change the way the first name is used and recorded by the school, that name can be used and recorded as the child’s first name,” the legal advice said.
The information said principals should consider the child’s age, capability and maturity of the student. It said a principal could consult a health care professional and ask them if “declining to use and record the student’s preferred first name” would have an impact on their wellbeing.
The advice has been in use for the past six years after it was updated in 2014.
NSW Upper House MP Mark Latham said the legal advice was yet another example of school overreach when it came to parental rights and appeared to contravene existing laws. “The legal situation is you don’t have full rights until you’re 18 and parents are your legal guardian until then. The legality is pretty clear and the department shouldn’t be saying this,” he said.
“If the parents say no, my view is the parental opinion should prevail.”
Psychologist Professor Dianna Kenny said this made principals effectively judge and jury when it came to green lighting the first steps towards transitioning.
“I had a case recently where the child told the school they were going to transition male to female and the child gave the school their preferred name and pronouns,” she said. “The first the parents heard of this was six months later when the child’s school report came home using the preferred name and pronouns.”
A Department of Education spokesman said parents were “always involved” and consulted when it came to name changes. “Principals do not make decisions about whether a child chooses to identify as an opposite gendered student,” he said. “Schools always work in partnership with parents and carers in the interest of student learning and wellbeing.”
South west Sydney mum Melinda Mahlberg said parents, not principals, were best placed to decide on what their child was called at school.
“This is a controversial topic, if there was a child who wanted to dress as the opposite gender, it should be up to the child,” Ms Mahlberg said.
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