Sex education and religion

[Albert Tatlock]

Hitting the national press too tomorrow...already Times and Sun articles.

[Ghost Ship]

14 hours ago, Gladys said:

It depends on what really happened.  Was it a drag queen, or a transgender person talking about the subject to an age appropriate audience?  Or was it a drag queen reading stories to children, not going anywhere near sexual matters?  Or was it a drag queen who was there to discuss  genders to 11 year olds? 

We just don't know, but I do know there are a lot of parents truly worried.  This needs a swift response from DESC, outlining exactly what the curriculum is and how it is delivered.  They can quickly say what is the approved material and subjects delivered and the ages delivered to, ie what should have happened.    Then they can have a detailed independent investigation into what actually did happen in respect of each allegation. 

I agree, and I don't understand why this is being approached in the way it is

I'd have thought any half competent head-teacher would have found out exactly what had happened within 30 minutes of the story breaking - and that's assuming they didn't already know what had happened anyway.

I'm assuming that no "drag queen" was involved because I can't see any good reason for one being in a classroom talking to 12 year olds about gender identity, but I can believe that a transgender person might have been present doing just that.  I'm also going to assume that no teacher - who must surely have been present? - would have countenanced the ejection of a pupil from class simply because they had offended anyone (let alone a drag queen) by saying that there were only two genders.

So I don't understand why the school didn't simply issue a statement along the lines of: (1) no drag queen has been invited into school to discuss anything with pupils, and (2) no pupil has been ejected from class for saying there are only two genders.   And if anybody (ie the press) asks "What did happen then?" the school should say that they can't say any more than that for fear of allowing individual pupils to be identified.

I understand the point John Wright has made about an independent inquiry being the correct way to proceed, but I'm not convinced.  This seems more likely to be an example of a lie being half way round the world (literally) before the truth has even got out of bed. 

By the time any independent investigation has reported what actually happened the damage will have been done and the IoM will be known as the place where kids get chucked out of school for hurting the feelings of a drag queen.

If it didn't happen (and I assume it didn't) I can't see any good reason for not denying it immediately.  Anything else raises suspicions of it being swept under the carpet.  Everybody will think an independent inquiry is a whitewash anyway.

14 hours ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

There’s also no mention of it being raised with the school governors or anything like that.

Instead, a local commissioner seems to be the one that they’ve turned to. 

Yes.  I don't know what role (if any) school governors have in the IoM, but I'd have thought that's where parents should have addressed their concerns in the first place.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Ghost Ship

[AcousticallyChallenged]

13 minutes ago, hissingsid said:

Apparently the drag queen was named panda perhaps he/she/it was wearing an animal costume ?    

I think that’s more Manx whispers, Panda was the name of the drag queen that was controversially reading stories in California. 

[Ghost Ship]

8 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Hitting the national press too tomorrow...already Times and Sun articles.

If what has been alleged went on in that classroom didn't actually happen (and the school and the DESC know it didn't happen) then it's absolute madness that this story has been allowed to escalate so out of hand when a straightforward denial could have been issued.

[Albert Tatlock]

1 minute ago, Ghost Ship said:

If what has been alleged went on in that classroom didn't actually happen (and the school and the DESC know it didn't happen) then it's absolute madness that this story has been allowed to escalate so out of hand when a straightforward denial could have been issued.

Unfortunately, commonsense is now officially classified as a 'superpower' in the annual MHK/Govt employee assessment system.

[Ghost Ship]

The best advice must be (and in fact always has been):

"Deny everything unless you know others can prove it happened"!

[Stu Peters]

1 hour ago, Shake me up Judy said:

Have to agree. Stu would be ripped to shreds if he went within a mile of this. But I hope he's got an opinion and I think it would be a fair one.

Unsurprising that HiV has criticised me for doing nothing. My fault for not copying him in to the email I sent to the Education Minister and Children’s Champion on 15th February reporting parent concerns about this and asking for answers.

[Gladys]

So, two weeks to have been spurred into action, investigate and have a meaningful response for the inevitable publicity!

Edited March 2, 2023 by Gladys

[Hoops]

13 minutes ago, Gladys said:

So, two weeks to have been spurred into action, investigate and have a meaningful response for the inevitable publicity!

This present administration is so profoundly crap.

[TheTeapot]

Absolutely every single thing to do with this story is hugely depressing. 

There's clearly been some kind of incident in school, which has likely come about from do gooders trying to do good without thinking about potential consequences, the religious crazies have obviously exaggerated the shit out of it as has information specialist Josem, the school in question has handled the fallout from it appallingly and the Department has basically said 'we havent a clue and are too inept to do something about it, please fix it someone, here's some money'. The UK press is all over it, and of course it was the worst bits of it that picked it up and ran with it. The DoE isn't even trying to run some damage control. 

There is a group of local people trying to run some kind of damage control though, and this is where things get very tricky indeed. 

It's like that old John Cleese clip where everything is the fault of the moderates.

[Hoops]

5 minutes ago, TheTeapot said:

 

'It's like that old John Cleese clip where everything is the fault of the moderators.'

 

Bloody Tatlock again.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Hoops

[HiVibes]

7 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

Unsurprising that HiV has criticised me for doing nothing. My fault for not copying him in to the email I sent to the Education Minister and Children’s Champion on 15th February reporting parent concerns about this and asking for answers.

So 2 weeks ago you did the bare minimum requirement of an MHK and sent an email, fairplay you must still be getting over the exertion.

[2112]

17 minutes ago, TheTeapot said:

Absolutely every single thing to do with this story is hugely depressing. 

There's clearly been some kind of incident in school, which has likely come about from do gooders trying to do good without thinking about potential consequences, the religious crazies have obviously exaggerated the shit out of it as has information specialist Josem, the school in question has handled the fallout from it appallingly and the Department has basically said 'we havent a clue and are too inept to do something about it, please fix it someone, here's some money'. The UK press is all over it, and of course it was the worst bits of it that picked it up and ran with it. The DoE isn't even trying to run some damage control. 

There is a group of local people trying to run some kind of damage control though, and this is where things get very tricky indeed. 

It's like that old John Cleese clip where everything is the fault of the moderates.

The Chief Minister has been very quiet on this topic. Or is he leaving this to his Education Minister to clean up ………. badly. The only public utterances was really from press releases, and the. commissioning of reports and investigations into the matter, at taxpayers expense, with the appeal for people not to speculate. In other words, keep quiet, move along nothing to see. 

[StrangeBrew]

9 minutes ago, HiVibes said:

So 2 weeks ago you did the bare minimum requirement of an MHK and sent an email, fairplay you must still be getting over the exertion.

I’m really no fan of Stu P, but what more do you think he should have done? He’s flagged the issue to the person ultimately responsible. Do you prefer Jason Moorhouses approach - wading in without facts, taking part in a ‘documentary’ based on overblown hearsay - thanks to which we are now being internationally ridiculed? 

[HiVibes]

3 minutes ago, StrangeBrew said:

I’m really no fan of Stu P, but what more do you think he should have done? He’s flagged the issue to the person ultimately responsible. Do you prefer Jason Moorhouses approach - wading in without facts, taking part in a ‘documentary’ based on overblown hearsay - thanks to which we are now being internationally ridiculed? 

He was voted in to be a blithering loudmouth idiot, so far very poor value for money, as for international ridicule, calm down even Nigel Farage seemed only mildly interested.