A mom in Nottingham, England, says she was kicked off school grounds for months after questioning how her daughter’s school was teaching radical gender identity topics.
Karina Conway, 42, raised concerns about what Sunnyside Spencer Academy in Beeston was teaching kids about gender. She said children as young as nine were being taught that “transgender identity” is a protected characteristic.
“She was ordered to stay away from the playground for eight months in September 2024 and then told she could only return if she didn’t criticise the school online,” The Telegraph reported.
Teachers had already called the police once, back in 2023, when Conway joined women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen in protesting outside the school.
“This trust is silencing the voices of parents who know sex is real and when it matters, it really matters,” Conway told The Telegraph.
She says she started speaking out after finding out what the school was teaching. According to her, the school admitted to making some mistakes in how they explained the Equality Act and thanked her for pointing it out. But afterward, she said the school warned her that their lawyers might step in if she kept reaching out.
“I cannot understand why they think they can attempt to intimidate parents in this way,” she said.
In June 2023, when Ofsted came to inspect the school, Conway used that opportunity to share her concerns directly with an inspector. She says she was told to file a complaint, but that nothing ever came of it. She then made a subject access request to Ofsted, asking for all the correspondence involving her family, the school, and the Spencer Academies Trust. One document she received revealed the school had warned Ofsted that Conway was “a parent expressing [she] does not want her child to be exposed to gender identity and has transphobic views.”
The document also stated: “A child in the school is now non binary and has become a target. She is trying to work with other parents to drum up support. She has got a petition going.”
Conway says she recently received a letter from the Spencer Academies Trust saying her ban could be lifted—but only if she gives the school advance notice of any event she wants to attend and agrees to stop posting anything negative about the school or its staff.
The letter said teachers “feel nervous when interacting with you… particularly when the discussion is raising a concern.”
