Schools could face legal action if student pronouns and bathroom access not respected

A new guide has been released advising schools that legal action may be taken if transgender people are not addressed using their preferred name and pronoun. 

The guide was produced by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties with support from the State’s human rights watchdog, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

"Your school must make every effort to update your name and pronoun in relevant systems and documents. It must also use your correct name and pronoun in day-to-day interactions," the guide says.

READ NEXT: 'Safety concerns' raised about popular Shein toy that 'should not' be sold in Ireland

It also advises that transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom of their preferred gender. 

It states the legal rights of trans people and says that if these rights are not upheld, legal action may be able to be taken against schools, colleges, and businesses. 

"As a trans student, you should be able to access toilets and changing facilities that correspond with your gender identity. If you are told you are not allowed to use a bathroom matching your gender identity, this may constitute discrimination on the basis of gender," the guide says.

Professor Donal O'Shea is a Consultant Endocrinologist who works with the National gender service.

He told Newstalk Breakfast that since 2010, there has been a "global surge in gender questioning." 

READ NEXT: Who are are the guests on tonight's RTE Late Late show?

"When someone is gender questioning, that's to be encouraged, respected, and you just have to be very careful that the rules you introduce don't force individuals who are gender questioning to make a firm stand on something they haven't fully made their mind up on," he said.

"The discussion around gender, once you bring it into toilet bathroom space, it just becomes this black and white bubble of heated noise," Professor O'Shea added. 

He highlighted how medical staff don't even fully understand the complexities of gender questioning so to bring that conversation into schools and law is very difficult.

"To expect teachers to include it in curriculums and discuss it with students when they don't have any lived experience with gender questioning people, I think it's really challenging," he said. 

The guide outlines a variety of guidelines for students in different scenarios in schools, such as being bullied, sharing rooms on trips, and changing uniforms to align with the gender a student identifies as.