A Christian family is considering legal action against a school in a row about its transgender policy.
Sally and Nigel Rowe send their six-year-old boy to a Church of England comprehensive on the Isle of Wight. Their son reportedly came home from school confused that a classmate was sometimes wearing male clothes and sometimes a dress.
The son was disciplined by the school under its anti-bullying policy for “misgendering” the pupil. The Rowes have since removed their son from the school.
Mrs Rowe told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that the children in the class were in a vulnerable situation: “They know that this child is a boy, but they are being forced to pretend that they are not a boy, they are a girl, and that’s quite hard for a child to get their head round.”
She said that other parents had been concerned that their children were coming home unhappy and confused. The couple may now take legal action against the school on the grounds that it has not taken full account of the best interests of pupils, including their son. They will also say that the school has not respected their right to bring up their children in accordance with their Christian values.
Mr Rowe said that the school should have begun a consultation process with parents, the local education authority and the Church of England.
Instead, the couple allege, the school responded to their concerns by saying: “If a child wants to do that then we just have to accept it.”
He will now be home-schooled along with his eight-year-old brother, whom the parents removed from school after very similar concerns about a classmate wearing a dress.
The Anglican diocese has backed the school’s decision, saying it supports “diversity”.
Bookseller named among Catholic Women of the Year
Kathy Kelly, who ran the Padre Pio bookshop near Victoria station in London for 25 years, has been named as one of four Catholic Women of the Year.
The others honoured are university chaplain Sister Mary Kenefick, Jackie Ottaway, co-editor of The Portal, the ordinariate’s online magazine, and Antonia Moffat, whose campaigning to promote devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham led to a new shrine in Westminster Cathedral.
Mrs Kelly helped to set up the Padre Pio shop while she was running a pub with her husband. Eventually she took over its management. She was forced to close it in March because of rising rents. According to a Catholic Women of the Year statement, “her welcome and openness meant people who had strayed from the Church or were confused in their faith found a new direction”. Two prayer groups are continuing in nearby parishes, it said.
The awardees are chosen in a secret ballot by a committee drawn from Catholic women’s organisations in England and Wales. Nominations are sent in from across the country. The Catholic Women of the Year luncheon is on November 3.
Leonard Cheshire campaign begins
A priest who knew Leonard Cheshire has said the “great quest and commitment of his life was for peace” at a Mass launching a campaign for his Cause.
Fr Barry Clifford, at a Mass in Cavendish, Suffolk, said that he, like many others, believed Cheshire should be canonised. He was a “great man” and “certainly very holy”, he said.
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