On the 21st January the Crown Prosecution Service released updated guidance for schools on LGBT+ Bullying and Hate Crime.
The CPS did not want to share this guidance with parents, however they. have now published it and you can read it here
SSA and Fair Cop are concerned about some of the content of this guidance:
- It creates a hierarchy of rights.
- It blurs the distinction between hate crime, which is defined in law, and ‘hate incidents’, which are not.
- It seeks to create a fear among children of being criminalised for asserting sex-based rights or discussing biological reality.
- It suggests that any child who states a preference for single-sex spaces is committing a hate incident, and possibly a hate crime.
- It suggests that wearing slogans or sharing information with others that recognises biological facts may be treated as a hate crime or incident.
- It promotes the ideology of political lobby groups Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence, which have no known qualifications to advise on child safeguarding.
We are asking parents, teachers, governors, and anyone else who is concerned about this guidance to write to the CPS to complain, using our letter template below.