The parents of a six-year-old girl have filed a human rights complaint after her teacher told her “there is no such thing as boys and girls”.
Pamela Buffone said her daughter became increasingly distressed and worried, asking if she could “go to a doctor” and saying she was “not sure if she wanted to be a mommy”.
The family are now asking a tribunal to ensure that classroom discussion does not “devalue, deny or undermine” biological reality.
Gender ideology
In January 2018, the teacher named as ‘JB’ showed the children at Devonshire Community Public School a video promoting radical gender ideology.
The video – ‘He, She and They?!? – Gender: Queer Kid Stuff #2’ – taught that “some people aren’t boys or girls” and some people don’t “feel like a ‘she’ or a ‘he’”.
The teacher then proceeded to tell the class “girls are not real and boys are not real”.
When the Buffones met with JB two months later to discuss their concerns, she claimed that gender ideology was part of the school policy and said she was ‘committed to the teaching of gender fluidity’.
Biological reality
The Buffones were increasingly concerned that their daughter was becoming traumatised.
Mum Pamela said her “gender identity is – or was – seamless comfort in her biological skin. She had never questioned that comfort.”
“Suddenly, she was told to believe that at any moment, what she believes to be real – that she is a girl – may not be true.”
“How very frightening that thought must be to a child”.
‘Important case’
Their human rights complaint states that the teacher subjected their six-year-old daughter “to ongoing discrimination on the basis of gender and gender identity, by a series of lessons that denied the existence of the female gender and biological sex and undermined the value of identifying as female”.
They have also asked the tribunal to make it compulsory for teachers in Canada to “inform parents when lessons on gender identity will take place or have taken place, including the teaching objectives and the materials that will be or have been used for such lessons”.
Pamela said: “This is an important case. Our Government seems to have given teachers carte blanche in terms of how they teach this concept.”
“Teachers are providing a public service and have a duty of care to all of their students”.