Has anyone encountered a situation where teachers / counsellors at school willfully kept a child's gender-swapping curiosity away from his/her parents?
There is a worrisome trend in the US and UK where teachers / counsellors at school are keeping these issues secret from parents and it looks like it's spreading to the International Schools here.
I have a neighbour who lives right next door who shared her story of her son (only 8 years old) who attends an International School in Singapore and who was slightly curious about changing genders. She did not know this at the time.
When her son approached his counsellor at school, the counsellor encouraged his curiosity even further and kept it confidential from the child's parents for over 2 years and was even encouraged not to mention this to his parents. The son's parents only found out when he accidentally mentioned what had happened to his parents.
The mother probed further and was extremely furious that the teachers / counsellor did not inform her of this for such a long span of time. She and her husband went to the school and the counselor said that confidentiality of the child is the priority.
In addition, the counselor even said that they do not need to inform parents if a child wishes to change his/her gender markers, pronouns, or preferred names; and, also do not need to inform parents if a child attempts to change gender affiliation regarding locker rooms or restrooms.
These responses from the counsellor made the parents even more furious, considering the child was just 8 years old and can't fully think for himself (the human brain only fully developers at around 25 years old).
What the parents were also upset about was how the school encouraged their son to keep 'secrets' with a third-party adult (the counsellor) without his parents being aware, especially at the tender age of 8 - 10 years old. There should be no secrets under these circumstances.
And to make matters worse, the parents were told by other parents to check out the school libraries where they discovered some books that had very sexually explicit images and comics of boy-on-boy oral / anal / and more for children, namely Gender Queer / Flamer and a few more. What happened to keeping school academically sound? This is clearly child-grooming under our noses, within our childrens' schools.
I've known the parents for a while and I believe the parents are accepting of ALL sorts of people (except pedophilles). But for an adult to share secrets with your child, without you as a parent knowing, crosses the line. What ever happened to parents rights to know?
What are your thoughts? Are there government / regulating bodies they can reach out to?
