Protect Children, End the Insanity of WOKE.

This is misinformation. There is NO legal requirement for schools to use students’ ‘preferred name and pronouns’. Under the Equal Status Acts 2000 – 2018 schools are prohibited against discriminating against students who hold a ‘protected characteristic’ in relation to admission, access, a term or condition of participation or expulsion. The legislation does NOT extend to using a students’ ‘preferred name and pronouns’. The ICCL in their new ‘trans rights guide’ misleadingly say that a teacher must use a students’ ‘preferred name and pronouns’ but do not cite any legal basis for this assertion. In fact, they refer only to Department of Education guidelines, which states a teacher ‘should’ use a students’ ‘preferred name and pronouns’. The Department of Education guidelines are policy NOT law. Their policy has no underpinning legislative basis and, indeed, a teacher cannot be compelled to use a students’ ‘preferred name and pronouns’ as this is in contravention of Art 9 ECHR and Article 44.2.1 of the Irish Constitution, which enshrines a teacher’s right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Schools CANNOT be compelled to use a students’ ‘preferred name and pronouns’ under the law. If this is imposed teachers should push back against the Department of Education by taking legal action on the basis that their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion has been unlawfully interfered with. It is fundamental that they do not get away with this insanity.