A mother has lost a legal battle to obtain sex education materials used in her daughter's lessons. The judge ruled that the commercial interests of the third-party sex education provider outweighed the public interest in releasing the lesson plan under freedom of information laws.
The mother, Clare Page, initiated the campaign after her 15-year-old daughter informed her that she had been taught that "heteronormativity" was negative and that she should have a "sex-positive" attitude toward relationships.
The lesson took place at Hatcham College, a state school in New Cross, southeast London, and was conducted by the School of Sexuality Education, a charity that has worked with over 300 schools. During her research on the charity's website and facilitators, Ms. Page discovered that one teacher identified themselves as a "master fetish trainer."
Ms. Page took legal action when the School of Sexuality Education refused to provide the lesson plan, slides, and facilitators' names. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) supported the charity's decision, stating that the public interest in disclosing the slides did not outweigh the charity's commercial interests. The first-tier tribunal upheld the ICO's decision.
Judge Sophie Buckley stated that the case only pertained to one lesson and that releasing the slides would have a limited contribution to public understanding of sex education lessons. She ruled that the public interest in maintaining confidentiality outweighed the public interest in disclosing the slides.
Ms. Page expressed her intention to seek legal advice on whether to pursue her campaign at an upper-tier tribunal. She raised concerns that her daughter's lesson violated the ban on political indoctrination of children in schools.
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