Mother refuses to abandon quest for public scrutiny of sex ed resources

A mother is set to appeal after a tribunal refused to allow sex education materials shown in her daughter’s school to be made public.

Clare Page took legal action after her 15-year-old daughter said a lesson at Hatcham College told her to be “sex positive” and that “heteronormativity” was “a bad thing”.

The School of Sexuality Education (SSE), which teaches the materials, has offered to let Page view them but claimed publicly releasing them would compromise its “intellectual property” and enable schools to use them for free.

Pornography

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the tribunal both backed the sex ed group, but Mrs Page now intends to go to an upper-tier tribunal. She said: “I believe all state-funded school resources should be published, citable and open for public or regulatory scrutiny.”

In March, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told schools that “parents should be able to view all curriculum materials”, including where “an external agency advises schools that their materials cannot be shared due to restrictions in commercial law”.

During the course of the hearing the SSE was forced to apologise for its links to disturbing material on websites run by those who deliver lessons on its behalf.

Some of the links included content promoting pornography and revealed that some individuals presenting for the controversial charity had commercial interests in the sex industry, including selling sex toys.

Also see:

Activist tells school headteachers ‘trans is a gift’

Education Secretary: ‘Teachers should not hide kids’ gender-confusion from parents’

Civitas: One in ten teenage pupils want to ‘change gender’

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