Parents opposed to LGBT material being shown to their children staged a protest outside a Manchester primary school on Tuesday July 4, 2023.
Around 100 people were reported to have demonstrated outside Birchfields Primary School in Fallowfield in the morning, with more attending in the afternoon.
Protesters were heard chanting ‘shame on you’ and ‘too much, too soon’, while holding signs reading ‘stop sexualising our children’.
Some attendees were not associated with the school, but were there to ‘marshall’ the protest, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has been told.
One of the organisers – a parent of four children at the school – has now been banned from entering its grounds. Mohammed Sajjad denies allegations his behaviour towards school staff has been threatening and intimidating.
Organisers say the ‘strike’ was over content in the curriculum.
It follows a recent meeting with parents in which relationship and sexuality education (RSE) classes were discussed. Protesters have called for an ‘open and honest’ conversation about the rest of the curriculum.
They have demanded that ‘all LGBT material ‘is restricted to RSE after a video of a transgender girl was shown to pupils in another lesson last year. The video was later removed from the curriculum. The school says it does not teach sex education.
Speaking to the LDRS, Mr Sajjad said: “Parents are really frustrated because they are hearing stuff from their kids. We feel we shouldn’t be hearing from our children if the school shows sensitive material.”
