Brighton school SCRAPS allowing biological boys to use girls’ changing rooms following court battle

Dorothy Stringer Secondary School in Brighton has ended a policy that allowed transgender pupils to use opposite-sex changing rooms on a case-by-case basis, after a teenage girl and her father brought a High Court challenge. The school says the change followed new Government safeguarding rules, while the case has raised questions about how schools communicate changing-room policies to parents and pupils.

The girl said the presence of a biological male made her cover more of her body and feel unable to complain for fear of being labelled transphobic. Her father said he first raised concerns 21 months before receiving assurances that changing rooms would be single-sex; his lawyers said the practice had lasted around three years. The school was still defending its case-by-case approach in June, but rules published in July and introduced on 1 September prohibit pupils from using opposite-sex changing rooms, with no exceptions. The family withdrew its legal challenge before a scheduled hearing.