A NEW education union has been founded to resist the teaching of “white privilege and transgender ideology” in schools.
Dr Stuart Waiton, a lecturer in sociology and criminology at Abertay University, has created Sue, the Scottish Union for Education.
Waiton joined the Brexit Party in 2019 and was chosen to stand as an MEP candidate for Scotland although was unsuccessful.
The Times reports that the new organisation will operate under the banner “education not indoctrination” and pledges to fight for “individuals and communities across Scotland who recognise that something is going seriously wrong in our schools and education institutions”.
Founding members include Lindsay Paterson, professor of education at Edinburgh University and Dr Penny Lewis, a Dundee University architecture lecturer who recently disputed a report into “institutional racism” in Scottish cricket.
Waiton previously joined Nigel Farage on stage at a rally to speak out against the “so-called liberal, enlightened, cosmopolitan” elite.
Lewis and Paterson both sit on the Scottish advisory council for the Free Speech Union, a group which resists cancel culture and “no-platforming” in politics and academia.
Waiton said: “Whether it is the divisive promotion of ‘white privilege’, the adoption of a transgender ideology, or the increasingly inappropriate nature of sex education, it is clear that a new type of dogma is being pushed on to Scottish children.
“Unfortunately, schools are increasingly being politicised. A social engineering agenda of ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘social justice’ is starting to replace the more traditional liberal focus on subject-based knowledge – the core foundation of our renowned and progressive education system is being eroded.”
The new union will campaign on issues from the teaching of history to the content of classes on relationships, sexual health and parenthood classes.
Its key demand is that parents have a right to know what children are being taught. Waiton continued: “If the content of education is becoming politicised and confused there is also a confusion of roles around topics like sex and gender.”
Official government advice urges teachers to educate primary children about transgender identity and to withhold information from parents if a pupil confides in them that they identify as transgender.
Waiton added: “In a reversal of roles, schools appear to be taking on the role of the child’s guardian, accepting without question that 12-year-olds can change their sex, while demonising parents who express concerns.
“In all subjects, including for example mathematics, teachers are being instructed to incorporate an anti-racist, diversity-aware dimension to their lessons, often assisted by the degraded and one-dimensional representation of ‘white privilege’.”
When approached for comment on something being “seriously wrong in Scottish schools”, the Scottish Government chose not to comment.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney previously told the National Parent Forum of Scotland that the sex education curriculum was “truly age appropriate”, dealt with “the world as it is” and was designed to offer a realistic portrayal of relationships to teenagers.
He said: “It is promoting nothing. It is equipping young people with a knowledge and an understanding of what they can make their judgments about as responsible citizens.”
