No outsiders? More like no parents’ rights
by Antonia Tully, SPUC:
This week, I was interviewed by BBC Radio Kent. The story being covered was the Birmingham primary school which has hit the news because parents are protesting about the use of an LGBT teaching programme called “No Outsiders”. The programme has been written by the deputy head at Parkfield, Andrew Moffat, who is openly homosexual and who deliberately chose to teach in a Muslim majority school. He considers that he is in “exactly the right place” and he “no plans to leave”.
Closing ranks
In recent weeks, every Thursday morning several hundred parents have staged a protest outside the school calling for an end to ‘No Outsiders’ because they feel that this is indoctrinating their children into accepting values contrary to their beliefs. On one Friday, 600 children were kept off school as part of the protest. Now Ofsted has come in and declared that No Outsiders is “age appropriate” and the school is rejoicing calling this “great news”. The might of the political and educational establishment has closed ranks against these parents.
“Backward parents”
To get back to my radio interview, the line of questioning soon became apparent. Presenter Ian Collins described the concerns of the Parkfield protesters as “a charter for bigoted parents” and stated that the parents “are just wrong”. Last month I took part in a Sky News interview. My opponent in the debate was Liat Hughes Joshi, who writes on parenting issues. Her view was that compulsory teaching of same sex relationships is needed because of “backward” parents. Later on that same day, Loic Menzies, who works for LKMco, an education think tank, came out with the stunning statement: “It’s a little bit dangerous to view children as the private property of their parents.”
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