A GROUP calling itself Public Child Protection Wales is fundraising for a legal challenge to the Welsh Government’s Relationships and Sexuality Education Code.
The Code passed the Senedd as part of the Curriculum for Wales.
The group claims to have raised £13,000 of the £100,000 it says it needs to bring the case.
It has already acquired the services of a barrister, Paul Diamond.
CODE ENDS PARENTAL CHOICE
The Code makes Relationships and Sexuality Education compulsory and ends a parent’s right to exclude their children from such lessons.
Public Child Protection Wales says it is for parents to decide the appropriateness of Relationships and Sexuality Education for their children and not for the state to intervene in their right to keep their children either ignorant or enlightened on the subject.
While PCP Wales claims to be a non-party political group, its cause has been taken up by extremist and fringe right-wing organisations who have tried to jump on the bandwagon to publicise their political agendas.
PCP Wales says its aims are “to promote a high standard of Safeguarding and raise awareness of exploitation and abuse of children. We will challenge policies that fail to safeguard and fight for additional investment in Children and young people’s services.”
Its intervention in Relationship and Sexuality Education extends “safeguarding” to include a final parental say over whether a child receives that education from their parents or teachers.
PEMBROKESHIRE AND PCPW
A case against Paul Dowson, county councillor for the Pembroke Dock Central Ward, relating to PCPW’s campaign goes before the Adjudication Panel for Wales later this year.
Councillor Dowson published a Facebook post stating that 0-3-year-olds “will” be taught about masturbation and that the new RSE curriculum “includes teaching 13-year-old boys and girls about anal sex”.
That is untrue, and the Ombudsman described the first of those allegations as particularly “outrageous and unpleasant”.
In an email to a fellow councillor, Councillor Dowson said RSE lesson plans teach 3-year-olds about masturbation and 11-year-olds and upwards about bondage, anal sex, and facial ejaculation.
Those untrue statements do not originate with Paul Dowson. They derive from misinformation peddled by individuals trying to outrage the public and incite opposition to the new Code.
The Ombudsman concluded: “I have seen no evidence that Councillor Dowson has evidence as to the content of the RSE curriculum or its lesson plans over and above that which is publicly available from Welsh Government.”
As a result, the Ombudsman concluded Paul Dowson’s posts were disinformation and alleged they brought his office as councillor into disrepute.
Paul Dowson rejects the allegations and criticisms, which form one part of a disciplinary case to be heard later this year.
CODE CONTENT UNPUBLISHED
While that might appear irrelevant to the campaign headed by PCP Wales, it goes towards the continuing miasma of disinformation, misinformation, and alarmism published on its Facebook page.
While RSE is taught in many countries in one form or another, teaching methods vary. In short: “For Wales, do not see “England”.
Moreover, as the lesson plans and Code content remain – as yet – unpublished, any information about alleged lesson plans and the course content is speculation at best and spurious at worst.
Therefore, the key issue cannot be what the course will teach – or even what campaigners imagine it will teach.
Instead, the core of any legal action against the Welsh Government must be on either “religious exemption” – the position before the new Curriculum became law – or an infringement on a parental choice about what their children are taught.
The religious exemption would be an arguable point only after the Welsh Government issues its guidance on the Code and lessons’ content. There is no engagement of any potential religious right to refuse until then.
PARENTAL CHOICE AND THE RIGHT TO LEARN
So, the case must centre on the question of parental choice.
PCP Wales is clear that’s their main objection – apart from scare stories about what the Welsh RSE Code might mandate.
They say: “[W]e must fight the legislation which mandates this over parental rights, preventing the parent carer from acting in the child’s best interest and be the judge as to what is age appropriate. It is time the adults shouldered the responsibility of sex education in the form of appropriate Safeguarding.”
PCP Wales trusts neither the Welsh Government, local authorities, maintained schools, headteachers, teachers, nor school governors to act appropriately or to gauge what is age-appropriate for a child. They assert parental autonomy and parental choice as the determining factor in what children learn in school.
Carried to absurd lengths, that train of argument would give parents control of everything taught in schools, or at least an ideological say over what their children learn about literature, history, or science.
LEGAL SERVICES OR SUPPORT
PCP Wales has instructed the independent barrister Paul Diamond to fight their case.
According to his website, Paul Diamond is “the leading barrister on the law of religious liberty, including matters of both ethical and social conscience.
“He combines his considerable strength in the field of religious liberty with his knowledge of public and European law. Paul is a specialist in European Human Rights law, EU law and certain aspects of public law.
“He has served as Standing Counsel to the Christian Legal Centre, a sister organisation of Christian Concern as well as the Keep Sunday Special Campaign.”
On its website, the Christian Legal Centre says: “We’re here to safeguard the freedom of Christians to live and speak for Jesus Christ, and to provide legal support for those taking a stand for Jesus and the truth that flows from him.”
The Christian Legal Centre is not a regulated legal practice and has no standing to instruct a barrister to act on behalf of clients.
Its interventions in public interest cases have been the subject of strong judicial criticism, which it rejects.
CLC’s interventions in cases are not meritless.
Freedom of religion and speech underpin civil society. However, the law is secular, created by legislatures, and subject to judicial interpretation.
However, to show the Welsh Government acted in such a way as to either infringe a protected right, whether relying on statutory breach or legal precedent, PCP Wales will have to demonstrate a real loss of a real existing right protected by real law.
THE WELSH GOVERNMENT RESPONDS
A spokesperson said: “It is disappointing that this group continues to promote incorrect and misleading claims about Relationships and Sexuality Education in Wales’s new curriculum.
“Topics like online safety, consent, and sexual health are all included in the Code, but at developmentally appropriate stages so learners aren’t exposed to things that aren’t appropriate to their age and development.
“At a younger age, for example, children will be taught about treating each other with kindness and empathy.
“As children grow older, they will gain an understanding of topics such as online safety, consent, and sexual health – all of which will be handled in a sensitive way.
“These reforms have been welcomed by a number of respected organisations including the NSPCC, the Children’s Commissioner’s Office, and Welsh Women’s Aid.”
