Elite Vic schools ordered to ‘pay particular attention’ to trans students’ needs

New child protection rules introduced by the Labor government mean Victorian schools must prioritise the needs of gender fluid or transitioning students.

Schools have been told to pay closer attention to the needs of transitioning or gender fluid students.

Child protection rules quietly introduced by the Labor government have forced some of Victoria’s most elite schools to prioritise the needs of transgender students ahead of their classmates.

Former education minister James Merlino signed a ministerial order shortly before he left office requiring schools and boarding schools to “pay particular attention” to the needs of students who are trans and gender diverse.

A Geelong Grammar family pulled their daughter out after she was placed in a dorm with a trans student.

The order means schools will not normally tell parents if their child is sharing a room on a school camp, or a dorm at a boarding school, with a transgender child.

Lawyer Nick Duggal, a partner at Moray and Agnew, said the order reflected the general duty of care for schools and was of particular interest to schools running boarding houses and school camps.

One issue was that the transitioning status of the student couldn’t be disclosed for privacy reasons despite some parents wanting to be told.

“I can appreciate that other parents may want to know if a student is gender fluid in certain settings such as dormitories, but this shouldn’t override the damage that non-consensual disclosure may cause the transitioning child,” he said.

“Parents may want to know, but do they need to know? What’s the risk to the other children in not knowing?

“It can be an issue warranting consideration in a boarding environment, where you have students together with limited supervision, or school camps where children share sleeping quarters,” Mr Duggal said.

Geelong Grammar wrote to parents whose daughters were sharing a room with a trans student after one parent pulled their daughter out.

Liberal MP Sarah Henderson, federal opposition education spokeswoman, said governments “have an important responsibility to consider the needs of all school students”.

“In a boarding school environment, the rights of girls to access single sex facilities such as dormitories and bathrooms are fundamental to safeguarding their dignity and privacy. These fundamental rights apply equally to boys.”

The Herald Sun last week revealed the family pulled their daughter out of Geelong Grammar after a student who was born male but identified as female was placed in her dormitory at the prestigious Timbertop campus.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal a gender fluid student was also placed in female dorms at the Timbertop campus five years ago.

The mother of a student who attended the school said her daughter “had no rights” when she questioned the behaviour of that student, who was biologically female but who sometimes identified as male.

“My daughter would wake up at night and this student was standing at the end of the bed staring at her,” she said.

“No one was touched but the looking made them all feel very uncomfortable.”

“I don’t care what people do or how they present their identity, but I do care about kids’ safety.”

Students at Timbertop are not allowed phones and cannot routinely contact their parents.

“It’s not enough to look after the needs of one student – they all need looking after,” the mother said.

Geelong Grammar declined to comment.

Many other schools, including Melbourne Grammar, Camberwell Grammar and Xavier College, have successfully accommodated transitioning students, who make up around 0.6 per cent of students.

Education Minister Ben Carroll said all schools “are required to create an inclusive culture where all students feel safe and are supported regardless of sex, gender or sexuality, including at school boarding facilities”.

“The Ministerial Order strengthened Child Safe Standards and was made in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which described the heightened risk of students in boarding facilities.”