Muslim parents threaten to keep kids off school 'indefinitely' in fresh protests against 'gay relationship lessons' – but school won't back down
Furious mums and dads held fresh protests outside Parkfield Community School in Birmingham after they took 600 kids home last week.
The parents have hit out at gay assistant headteacher Andrew Moffatt’s “No Outsiders” project, claiming it is “brainwashing” children as young as four.
The school has refused to axe the LGBT awareness programme and says it will relaunch after the Easter break.
More than 200 parents and kids today protested outside the school over the syllabus and waved banners saying "Exploiting Children's Innocence".
Parkfield – rated outstanding by Ofsted – offers five lessons a year covering age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
NOT A MUSLIM ISSUE
Mariam Ahmed, 31, has a four-year-old daughter in reception and launched the parents’ first petition against No Outsiders in January.
She said: “This is not a Muslim issue. We have been supported by Jews and Christians over this.
“They are trying to radicalise and reengineer our beliefs and they’re saying if you don’t support us, then you must be a homophobe and you must be a radical.
“It’s just not true. If we had a thing against being gay then we would have campaigned when Mr Moffatt was appointed four years ago.
They are trying to radicalise and reengineer our beliefs and they’re saying if you don’t support us, then you must be a homophobe and you must be a radical.
“His only focus is on gender reassignment and homosexuality, that’s all the guy is focusing on.
“He is bringing gay celebrities into assembly, and showing pupils pictures of his partner. There was a gay author brought in during World Book Day.
“That is all he is focused on and it is completely unnecessary. It is overload.
“We have no issue with Mr Moffatt as a person at all. He’s homosexual, that’s fine. We don’t have an issue with that. But his sex life needs to be left in his bedroom."
PUTTING IDEAS IN HEADS
She added: “If he was heterosexual and went into a primary school class and said ‘I like women’, ‘have a look at my wife’, then the police would be called in a jiffy.
“He is bringing his personal life to work, telling kids in the corridor that it is okay to be gay. It’s putting ideas in heads.
“They have turned this into a row about homophobia. But being against this programme doesn’t mean we are anti-gay.
Parents have vowed to stage multiple future protests until the school agrees to scrap the lessons permanently.
A Birmingham lawyer whose child attends the school is helping to orchestrate the campaign.
He said: “It is not about religion, it is about parental choice. The school is sexualising children who still believe in the tooth fairy and Father Christmas.
"We are not against gay rights but we are against not being consulted over this.
“The Equalities Act can be taught in other ways. This is just a way for Mr Moffatt to push forward his own toxic programme.”
Community activist Javed Iqbal, 50, is helping to organise the protests and said: "I think it is disgusting. Children are having to suffer and witness these scenes at such a young age."
Hazel Pulley, Chief Executive of Excelsior Multi Academy Trust which runs the school, said: "The lessons are there for after Easter. Equalities education will continue."
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