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Oct 8 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
It is concerning that staff of the charity @LGBTYS, who provide training to schools & sit as partners for the national anti-bullying agency, Respect Me, are uncritically showing solidarity with the charity Mermaids, who are under investigation for #SafeguardingFail’s
This isn’t just a rogue worker, several others appear to agree.

We would have assumed that best practice for an influential organisation like LGBTYS would be to wait for the investigation to be conducted & confirmation that risk of harm has been mitigated.
Vulnerable young people use the chat function to speak to youth workers at LGBTYS, & I think we can assume that the signposting to Mermaids will continue, after seeing this show of solidarity, despite the concerning #Safeguarding risks being investigated. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-630816…
One of the areas of concern about Mermaids is they’ve been sending girls as young as 13 breast flattening binders, without parents knowledge.

Here is a LGBTYS YW sending information on breast binding to a child. The child says mum checks emails, YW agrees to send somewhere else
This is not the first time we have raised concerns about LGBTYS appearing to support and show solidarity in cases were #Safeguarding issues are evident.
Parents, teachers and others have contacted us to raise concerns about LGBTYS and their practice. They are concerned about the influence they have in schools and at @scotgov.

Who could blame them, when we consider the role they played in developing the school guidance?
Here is a detailed blog by @ForWomenScot highlighting the concerns we share, that LGBTYS, despite having produced guidance that ‘risked excluding girls and was described as “not legal”’, continue to be an influential part of new guidance forwomen.scot/03/12/2019/lgb…
LGBTYS appear to have incredible influence in Scotland. Giving questionable advice to children & families, developing ‘not legal’ guidance for schools, delivering training to teachers, partners of Respect Me, government funding, assessing charities.
When one organisation has a monopoly of this magnitude, we don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask why and to question the conflict of interest this creates.

We have concerns about showing solidarity with Mermaids, but that is only one of the many concerns we have.
More information being shared that raises concerns.
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More from @sos_scotland

SOS Scotland Profile picture
Sep 6
We have continued to raise the alarm over instances of bullying in Scottish schools, due to @scotgov guidance and lobby groups teaching gender identity ideology as fact.

We feel that parents & teachers views on these issues are being dismissed. scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/…
The guidance is not lawful. It pushes an affirmation model of care for children who may be experiencing gender incongruence. This is despite evidence from the #CassReview which highlights that social transition is not a neutral act, it’s an intervention.
As long as this guidance remains, the risk of children being projected onto a medical pathway also remains. We won’t sit by quietly and allow this to go unchallenged. As many obstacles as we face, we will continue to speak about this issue.
Read 5 tweets
SOS Scotland Profile picture
Aug 10
We have heard from the parent of a 10 year old who was bullied to the point of self harm because she ‘misgendered’ a peer.

We have heard from the parent of a 15 yr old who was threatened with a ‘hate crime’ for questioning a peers social transition. 1/
We have heard from a parent whose teen was socially transitioned in school, despite parents and medical experts advising against. Parents were referred to social work. 2/
We spoke to a parent whose dyslexic teen was reprimanded for not using ‘preferred pronouns’, despite him having memory processing issues that meant he struggled to remember the changes of names and pronouns, some several times a week. 3/
Read 5 tweets
SOS Scotland Profile picture
Aug 10
@SuellaBraverman speech:

Schools:

*Need to understand legal obligations

*Many schools and teachers believe - incorrectly – that they have to treat children according to that child's preference. This approach is NOT supported by the law.

#EdTwitter #EdScotland
*It is lawful for a school to refuse to allow use of facilities of the opposite sex. If allowed this may be unlawful discrimination of the other pupils.

*It is lawful to refuse a male child from using single sex girls dormitories & vice versa. NOT discrimination NOT unlawful
*It can be lawful to refuse to use preferred pronouns. This is NOT discrimination. Particularly if unsupported by parents and medical advice. Not discrimination under Gender Recognition PC. This is social transition and serious intervention. #CassReview
Read 9 tweets
SOS Scotland Profile picture
Jul 26
A few years ago a drag performer was brought into a primary school in Scotland. Parents were not consulted and it resulted in an apology being issued by Renfrewshire Council, who had not appropriately risk assessed the drag Queen. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
Lgbt Youth Scotland tweeted this message at the time, despite the sexualised content found on the drag queens social media, mixed with images of the children and the school.

It would seem scrutiny or questions about #Safeguarding are not appropriate for certain things.
Politician Mhairi Black attacked parents as homophobic in response to them asking questions, wholly understandable when we consider that there was indeed a #Safeguarding risk eventually identified.
Read 10 tweets
SOS Scotland Profile picture
Jul 13
We asked Dr Cass if she thinks that teachers should be trained around being able to avoid overshadowing of underlying causation of distress in a child presenting as transgender.

Dr Cass: ‘100% agree that teachers should be given more training on how to manage children…1/
with gender distress. Gender distress doesn’t begin at the door of the NHS. Guidance should be provided to school staff on what they can do”

“A child in a supportive family, under any context, is going to have a better outcome than a child who isn’t…2/
One real problem is when schools enact a social transition without any communication with the family, which instantly puts a poorer outcome on that child.”

She continued - “Social transition is a powerful intervention. Whether it’s the right outcome for any one child is a…3/
Read 8 tweets
SOS Scotland Profile picture
Jul 12
Parents need to be involved in decisions about how their disabled children are looked after in school. This is essential for #Safeguarding

This @NSPCC podcast covers a study they funded looking at how to provide better support for parents and to get their views . 1/
learning.nspcc.org.uk/news/2019/nove…
Where intimate care is required, the child and/or their parents views must be considered as paramount. 2 practitioners will usually be involved, however best practice is to use a same-sex practitioner for reasons of privacy, dignity and safety of the child. 3/
Read 6 tweets

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