113 Comments

I was bullied by other adolescent girls in my teens. I actually cried when I read this story yesterday, I was so horror-struck. And Owen’s reaction is to make sure the “side” of the mob is heard? He can probably sink lower but I am not sure how.

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What horrifies me is that out of 60 (SIXTY!) girls, not one stood up for her due to 1) poor parenting and 2) poor educational system. It is quite clear to me that we are raising a generation of fascists who will inform upon, harass, and ultimately watch while others are hauled off to concentration camps.

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BBC sounds have an audiobook of 1984 and since I haven’t read it for decades I thought I’d listen to the recording. Had to stop at chapter 3 as it is so painfully close to some current events I just couldn’t thole it. Especially how horrible the children became as a result of messing with their thought processes.

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And their slightly older siblings dress entirely in black and hide their faces.

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May 18, 2022·edited May 18, 2022

I hope she is too, but she probably isn't. Her mental well-being and her education has been made to suffer. Whilst the girls who bullied her behaved appallingly, it is ultimately the school that is responsible. Not only did it fail protect and support her, its cooperation with Stonewall has created an atmosphere where bullying of this kind is possible. Seemingly, the school sees its obligation is to the aims of that organisation not its pupils.

If the parents of this girl are in a position to take legal action against the school then they should. She has done nothing wrong, the wrongness is entirely with the school.

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Probably most of us (who can) would support a crowd-funder for that purpose, only the publicity might make it even worse for the girl.

Now I'm worrying that even if she does as well as she deserves in her A-levels, what will she face at university?

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"Speak anonymously". Course you will Owen, and you will then present anything they say as absolute fact, as long as it backs up your pathetic misogyny. This girl is supposed to be doing her A Levels, and won't need any more stress.

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May 18, 2022Liked by mole at the counter

Well said. Shame on you, Owen Jones. And shame on the school leaders. Who really has no "safe space" at their school???! None so blind, etc.

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Where were the teachers, allowing this to happen? The parents?

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May 18, 2022Liked by mole at the counter

Cowering in the corner, afraid for their jobs.

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May 18, 2022Liked by mole at the counter

Failing in their basic safeguarding duties!

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May 18, 2022·edited May 18, 2022

Unless the parents are also in the thrall of gender identity ideology and everything it represents, which is unlikely, I hope they collectively act against the school they are paying to educate their daughters. They are customers paying for a service, and if they withdraw their custom or imply that they might, the school would be foolish not to alter its stance.

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I sincerely doubt the parents have any problem with their thuggish children's behavior. I have known ONE -- that's ONE -- person in my entire life who would stand against a crowd to support someone being bullied, and that was my mother. I'm guessing her mother would have as well, but my grandmother died when I was two years old.

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It is difficult to stand against a crowd but a lot easier when there are other people who'll stand with you. I hope that at least some of the parents have a problem with children being bullied by other pupils and effectively by the school too, a really big problem. And that they would have a problem with the school they're paying, taking it upon itself to impose aspects of what's become a deeply authoritarian ideology on their pupils. Something it agreed to commit to when it started giving money to Stonewall. Even parents who don't appear that bothered about what happens to other people's kids, might be mindful of it possibly happening to theirs.

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Unfortunately, our children are being taught to avoid difficulty of any kind. When I read an administrator at Harvard University describe herself as a "Blewish feminist mermaid" -- I wouldn't have called myself a mermaid when I was six years old; I would have stuck out my tongue and said YUK -- I knew that infantilism had thoroughly infiltrated our educational system.

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Joining in?

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The parents and teachers participated in raising these girls to never question government-backed ideology and to attack anyone who does. The parents and the teachers are responsible for this abhorrent behavior.

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Blood on their hands.

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Dispicable and deluded! Also in the Times today (hidden in the Scotland section) is Maya Forstater with an excellent opinion piece about self ID offering a dangerous ‘invisibility cloak.’

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Thank you for the recommendation

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I'm about to contact The Guardian and point out that one of their lovely people is inviting schoolkids to contact him so he can gather "evidence" which he is presumably going to use against a teenage girl. He may not name her, of course, but it hardly going to go unnoticed by the girl and her former school mates, so how is that going to make her feel? Like most teens, she's going to be online, (and probably lives in the area), even if she has left the school.....

I'm not sure if this is the best one?

https://www.theguardian.com/info/2014/sep/12/-sp-how-to-make-a-complaint-about-guardian-or-observer-content

Could try this too?

https://academy.news.co.uk/behind-the-headline/essential-law/the-press-complaints-commission-pcc-and-investigative-journalism/

Also, how do you contact Nicola Woolcock, (only via Twitter?), who wrote the article. She may like to know what LOJ has in store for the girl

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And she doesn't have Parliamentary privilege. It is very clear who has privilege and who doesn't in our societies.

Some 'journalists' and 'social justice warriors' make out it is the privileged they go after. Oh really, who's playing privilege dress up this week when we all damn well know who has it and takes it. Owen, let someone else have a turn in the dressing up box.

His dogged determination to go after some people is extraordinary.

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Be sure to let us know if the Guardian respond.

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Good idea. After all, women have lost their jobs over a tweet before.

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Just looked at LOJ Twitter. He's getting the usual fawning crap, of course, but a fair few people pointing out that he didn't bother to present "the other side" on a story he just wrote about a man being bullied, or even think to check up on the WI Spa incident before he denounced it as false. So it's basically, "Anything critcial of Trans is Fake" as a starting point

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I wonder if OJ didn't immediately block those who pointed that out. Thanks for the update, as I've been long blocked.!

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I really must do some work and stop reading this!!!

BUT...

If it did happen as reported and he does directly interview some of the girls involved, what are they likely to say, with their PARENTS present;

Will it be something like:

"Yes, she made some really good, well-argued points, but we all reacted like a mob of witch burners, cos we can't have anyone breaking away from the Hive mind. Saying biology is real wreaks our chances to be non-binary and special, and we can't virtue signal all over WhatApp

Or

"She was a complete cow! Saying all trans are dirty pervs and child molesters who ought to be in jail. We tried to reason with her but she kept getting in my face and yelling. I was scared (sad face)

Hmmm....I wonder

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deletedMay 18, 2022·edited May 18, 2022
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Yes, it's been shite for ages now, it's just got worse.

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This is reminiscent of the Crucible!

“It was the whispered and frequent use of the terms transphobe and transphobic during that after-school activity that alerted me to the depressing fact that these girls were going along with the narrative that our heretic was, as far as they were concerned, indeed a heretic — and that she was thoroughly deserving of the roasting that she had just received before caving in and running off in a panicked and hyperventilating state.”

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Sickening. There’s nothing crueller than teenagers. Oh wait, maybe one thing. Owen Jones.

He really gets off on bullying people ill equipped to argue back. Nasty little stain he is.

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He is central to the story the Guardian have created about themselves very similar to what our First Minister has done in Scotland. They have decided that their target audience is the young and credulous and so nonsense and mythology and anything alternative is given a platform. This means being on board with people you wouldn’t normally give house room to. The SNP is now choc a bloc with sheep and the Greens have given them a further dimension of stupidity. The Guardian now has very few columnists or journalists to admire.

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That girl should have a great future, if our society still values intellectual probity and the courage to challenge those in power.

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Yes, courage..something sadly lacking with the young and impressionable..unless it's 'courage' of the trans ideology type and the current trend. Simple minds. I hope she is encouraged to be brave and hold on to her ideals. Maybe someone will reach out to her to help her through?

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I would love to send her some money to help pay for uni fees or training or something. I can’t help worry that she will miss out in an education because of all this.

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There need to be several enquiries regarding this awful incident. The school and teachers should be named and required to explain their actions. The peer should be required to explain whybthwy are repeating unscientific and nknsense views to persuadable young people. And the Guardian, and other outlets, should seriously question why Jones is still given any sort of platform at all.

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Swift removal of Stonewall is needed, esp if it's a fee paying school, there lies the power!! Come on parents, protect your children.

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Safe spaces that create very dangerous spaces. Who wants that? A small number with massively disproportionate influence clearly want it. People need to stop behaving like they've undergone a shared lobotomy and react against this surreal oppression.

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It is remarkably similar to 'Tommy Robinson' shittyness, trying to claim that a kid being bullied was the one at fault just to suit his ideology.

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Enough similarity that the Guardian's legal counsel would be standing ready with the big red pen, even if Kath Viner doesn't say no first. Difficult to imagine a story Owen is less qualified to handle, except maybe sending him off to a war zone.

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That’s an idea Tea. Send him off to a war zone. I think it wouldn’t be long before they started receiving stories on the transphobia of the troops.

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But it's a war! A war I tells ya! Owen is on the front line! In the battles in his head and the fight he takes wherever he can drag it! Those poor vulnerables are falling under imaginary fire all over our streets in their bravery. Whilst being stunning and much more stunningyinger than those cruel ugly women wommening all over all our public places they have no rights to be in damn them!

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I actually hope that is his genuine perspective. If it’s not, then what is his motive?

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What does it matter what his motives are? When you are a subject of his pile-ons it feels just the same. He is so spectacularly determined to be right and tell everyone else they are wrong, wrong, wrong and that mindset was only encouraged by his time at Oxford. I could speculate but have better things to do than try to work him out. That he dresses his attacks up as defending the weak is paper thin and it's been his shtick for years.

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I’ve not heard that phrase before. Do you mean making someone out to be a villain when they’re not?

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The school-in-question should be classed as a religious institution. Quite likely, in view of its anti-science stance, its teachers and senior staff would enable attacks on girls who espoused Evolution/Natural Selection.

If the school operates as a charity then its status should be changed to being a religious institution by The Charity Commissioners.

If it advertises, say for new fee-paying pupils, its adverts should include text to say it does not tolerate any deviation from the ideology it practices-and-promotes.

Its teachers and senior staff should have their DBS certificates reviewed, as the school obviously does not place the safety of pupils at the heart of its policies.

A snap/no-notice Ofsted inspection, accompanied by safeguarding experts should be visited upon the school once it is identified, to review its safeguarding and education policies.

I think the above would be a reasonable response.

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Completely agree.

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What an absolute scrote Owen Jones is.

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