Parents raise alarm school ‘wellbeing teams’ encourage children to question gender

Parents, teachers express concern over ‘wellbeing co-ordinators’ in the public system pushing transgender ideology on pupils.

Concerned teachers say “wellbeing co-ordinators” stationed within public schools in several states, but often with no qualifications in education or psychology, are pushing transgender ideology on students. Picture: iStock

Parents are raising the alarm that some high schools are “crossing the line” in not only supporting students to socially transition as the opposite sex without parents’ knowledge but actively encouraging children to question gender identities.

Concerned teachers say “wellbeing co-ordinators” stationed within public schools in several states, but often with no qualifications in education or psychology, are pushing transgender ideology on students and confusing young teenagers by urging them to consider concepts of sexuality and identity they are not yet mature enough to understand.

Wellbeing co-ordinators frequently arrange for trans activist organisations to give talks within schools discussing gender fluidity, aimed at “affirming and celebrating” gender-diverse children.

“These are people that spend half of their life going to courses with external agencies, trans activist groups … they flood the school with posters, and tell the librarian what books to buy, and all the teachers defer to them,” said one public high school teacher.

Parents with children in year 7 at Northcote High School, in Melbourne’s inner north, were recently taken aback when they learned the school’s wellbeing team had emailed all students asking them to fill out a survey if they wished to be known by a different name or gender.

“The wellbeing team have created a survey for students who would like to be known as a different name, gender or use different pronouns,” said the email, of which parents had no knowledge.

“If this is something you’ve been thinking about, or if you’re one of the many students we have already supported with gender affirmation, please click here.

“Please note that if you choose to fill this out, your information will be private and we will not out you! We would just like to organise a time to chat and help you navigate what happens next.”

Most of the students who received the March email were 12 years old and had started high school only some five weeks beforehand.

A school’s wellbeing team emailed all students asking them to fill out a survey if they wished to be known by a different name or gender. Picture: iStock

“This is next-level outrageous and shocking,” said a teacher.

“We’re dealing with kids here who are so young, they don’t even have a firm understanding of what sexuality is.

“Progressive education is filled with this idea that kids have to lead things. I think teachers have really lost the plot. I genuinely think a lot of teachers don’t really have a firm understanding of what the law is on this.

“When another kid declares they are transitioning, it’s never a kid who is clearly thriving, who doesn’t have any other problems. Even teachers who believe in gender identity can now see it is just not good for kids, that the kids are not OK.”

Northcote High’s principal did not respond to comment requests.

The concerns follow reporting by The Australian that lifted the lid on the anguish and devastation of families with teenagers suffering gender dysphoria. Many families have experience of their children being socially transitioned at school without their knowledge, and schools are frequently reporting parents who resist unquestioningly affirming their child’s chosen gender to child protection, even when the parents hold genuine concerns that other mental health issues or issues related to neuro­diversity are at play in the gender confusion.

Victorian government policy binds schools to “working students to affirm their gender identity to prepare and implement a student support plan”.

Under the policy, also reflected in NSW, schools are permitted to support students to socially transition at school without parental consent if they are deemed a mat­ure minor, known in the law as Gillick competent.

Yet parents who have been trying to obtain holistic healthcare for their children who are struggling with their identity alongside myriad mental health problems say they believe even if a child is 16 and considered a mature minor, they should be kept abreast of the fact they are being referred to at school by a different name.

“It’s such a betrayal to refuse to communicate with us about this,” one parent said. “It feels as though there’s been an institutional ideological capture and people are no longer thinking rationally or making evidence-based decisions in relation to this issue. It’s very easy to be presented with transgender as a solution to all of a teenager’s problems and say ‘This is it’.”

“All of their anxiety, their depression, the fact they have been alienated from friendship groups, every single one of those problems disappears. But it’s an illusion.”