No Need to Consult the Nature of Science and the Science of Nature

"A girl can go to school knowing she's a girl and come home unsure of who she is because schools are meddling with children's identities by completely disregarding biological reality as a relevant and important personal characteristic -- now with the full support of the [tribunal]."

Pam Buffone, mother of six-year-old, Ottawa

 

"It is clear that what [the girl's] parents are seeking was not a clarification or correction for their daughter, but systemic changes to the school board's policy and to an educational system that in their opinion should not allow such concepts as 'gender fluidity' to be addressed in the classroom."

"N.B. [use of initials to protect the child's privacy] was not in any way singled out [by the teacher's statement about males and females being the same]."

"The statement does not distinguish between boys and girls and therefore, does not result in the erasure of one group as opposed to another, as alleged by the [Buffones]."

Adjudicator Eva Nichols, Ontario Human Rights Commission

Then the teacher said to the class – “with a very serious face” according to our daughter – “girls are not real and boys are not real”.

Sheer sophistry. Sheer madness. Going far beyond the certainty of some believers that the Earth is flat and the sun revolves around our planet. Biological realities of the sexes completely spurned. In Ireland evangelical Christian Enoch Burke, a teacher at the Church of Ireland school was place on paid suspension by Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath when he refused to address one of his pupils as "they".  The school took out a temporary injunction to prevent him from appearing at the school and causing any disruptions.

"I love my school with its motto Res Non Verba; 'actions not words', but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl" he said before a judge. He had broken a court order the school secured for him not to be present at the school at the start of a new term. For his troubles he was jailed when he informed the court he could not in good conscience comply with the order, and was summarily arrested.
 

A history and German language teacher, Burke was informed that he must remain in prison until such time as  he agrees to comply with the terms of the injunction. For his part, Burke responded that it was "extraordinary and reprehensible" for his religious beliefs to lead to his suspension as a teacher from the school.

In Ontario, Canada, a Grade One teacher at an elementary school in Ottawa informed her class on gender fluidity, explaining there was no such thing as boys and girls. One child arriving back home after school was, according to her mother Pam Buffone, confused and unsettled, leading her and her husband to complain to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal that the school had discriminated against the six-year-old based on her sex and gender identity.

According to a  tribunal adjudicator the Ottawa public-school board did not, as charged, violate the girl's rights with its gender-themed instruction. There was no direct evidence, asserted the adjudicator, that the child was harmed by the material. The new and suddenly prevailing mission to teach grade school children from age six and up that gender dysphoria or 'gender fluidity' entitled them to question their natal sex, the sex they were assigned at birth, doesn't sit too well with most parents.

This is not because parents are hard-disciplining mentors to their children, but because they're not ignorant and know full well the authenticity of biological science determining who is female and who is male. In an issue as biologically basic as the recognition of the genders through their physical signatures, it is also taken into account that within genders there will be a whole multitude of emotional and psychological states expressed by both genders.

Adjudicator Eva Nichols based her conclusion denying the complaint brought by the child's parents  focusing on her interpretation the parents sought to have schools cease teaching impressionable children at such an early age that they may not be who and what they are assumed to be. This kind of social-biological enterprise is far removed from the basics of the educational system where the focus should be on the traditional three Rs; reading, writing, arithmetic.

It is true that Pam Buffone has sought to challenge both the education and health-care systems in their taking on transgender issues, launching the Gender Report Canada website. The almost universal championing of the woke-left love affair with all things LGBTQ-2 and more, within the much wider field of normalcy in genetics and biological inheritance has reached absurd proportions.

The manner in which schools deal with gender identity in the United States is now a matter of hot debate that has been politicized within a divided country where it has become a wedge issue. A sensible enough bill has been signed into law by Florida's governor banning gender identity discussions, or sexual orientation up to Grade 3 pupils. 

In Ontario that schools give formal recognition to name and pronoun changes for minor children without the parents being informed, or that large groups of pupils within a single class decide to declare as transgender is sparking a backlash from parents, even as health professionals who treat young people with gender dysphoria claim affirmative and supportive actions are vital to children's mental health and well-being.

“A girl can go to school knowing she’s a girl and come home unsure of who she is because schools are meddling with children’s identities by completely disregarding biological reality as a relevant and important personal characteristic — now with the full support of the (tribunal),” said Pam Buffone. Photo by Getty Images/iStockphoto