Scots schools to convert gender-neutral toilets to single-sex after Supreme Court ruling

Daily Record

2 days ago

Currently, 52 schools across 11 council areas in Scotland only offer gender-neutral toilets
Around 18 Scottish schools that previously offered gender-neutral toilets will convert back to single-sex facilities following a legal ruling.
The schools, in Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, the Scottish Borders and Shetland, will add separate bathrooms for boys and girls. It comes after a landmark ruling at the UK Supreme court, which declared a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.
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Figures obtained by the BBC show that 52 schools across 11 council areas in Scotland only offered gender-neutral toilets. Of those, 10 are located in Shetland.
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court ruling before deciding how to respond.
Meanwhile, City of Edinburgh Council said it was "considering what changes may need to be made".
The local authority plans to provide an update over the summer.
Five other councils - Clackmannanshire, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, Midlothian and Perth and Kinross - confirmed they had at least one school in their area which offered no single-sex facilities.
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They did not provide an update on any changes to provision since then.
South Ayrshire, Moray, Stirling and South Lanarkshire councils said none of their schools offered any gender-neutral provision.
In April, a Scottish judge ruled that all state schools must provide separate male and female toilets following a legal case brought by parents against Scottish Borders Council.
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The decision, handed down at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, came after Sean Stratford and Leigh Hurley challenged the council's policy at Earlston Primary School, where their eight-year-old son had been a pupil.
Rosie Walker, solicitor for the parents and partner at Gilson Gray LLP, welcomed the judgment.
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She said at the time: "This case, on top of the Supreme Court decision last week, gives focus to the importance of protecting sex-based rights a nd single-sex spaces."
Ms Hurley, 39, who works at the school as a pupil support worker, first raised concerns in late 2023 about the school's broader transgender inclusion policies, which included allowing a pupil to socially transition and participate in sports in line with their gender identity.
She later discovered the school planned to have no sex-segregated toilet facilities, and that children could face punishment for "misgendering" peers.
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She said: 'We just want all children to be safeguarded. We have great empathy for any child, but we just wanted our rights respected at the same time, and that wasn't happening.'
The couple ultimately withdrew their son from the school, citing emotional distress and concerns about their younger daughter, who would have also been expected to use gender-neutral toilets once she enrolled.
Stratford, 42, said: 'We've won, but common sense says we should never have been in this position in the first place. We brought this to their attention when it was still a building site.'