A mother has sought to sue the all-girls school she once attended and where her three daughters now study, on the grounds a transgender pupil had been "secretly admitted".
The legal action comes after a year-long battle where mother Joanne Donoghue pursued answers about the student's enrolment to Beverley High School in East Yorkshire.
She had also put pressure on East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which oversees admissions, to no avail.
Three decades on from her own time at the school, Ms Donoghue said she found it “horrible” to pursue legal action against the institution but insisted she "had no choice" after her enquiries were repeatedly “shut down”.
It comes following the landmark Supreme Court ruling in April last year, which declared the term “sex” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex, and not an “acquired gender”.
Despite the ruling, only 73 per cent of schools say they keep single-sex toilets and changing rooms, while a mere 36 per cent claim to keep single-sex sports separated according to biological sex.
Concerned the Yorkshire school was in breach of the law, Ms Donoghue instructed lawyers to send a pre-action letter threatening to lodge a High Court claim for a judicial review against the council.
The correspondence alleges the council adopted a “secret” policy to admit biological boys who identified as transgender girls to Beverley High School, according to The Times.
Single-sex Beverley High School in East Yorkshire stands accused of admitting a trans pupil
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The alleged policy is said to place female pupils at a disadvantage, with girls’ schools not being resourced to provide separate spaces such as toilets for biological boys.
The letter describes how "teenage girls have particularly acute needs for privacy and dignity" during secondary school years, as they begin to menstruate and their bodies change.
"It is vital that girls can trust that they are in environments that safeguard their privacy and dignity", the letter adds.
Ms Donoghue's positive memories at the school, paired with a “good academic record”, prompted her to send her own daughters there, citing the single-sex enrolment as "important to me".
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“We know that there’s evidence that girls do better academically in Stem subjects, for example, when they’re in an all-female environment", she said.
The mother first got wind of a male pupil at the school one afternoon last year, after she overheard her 15-year-old daughter discussing the subject with a friend.
When emailing the head teacher and asking for confirmation of a trans girl having been admitted, the head teacher dismissed concerns despite similar testimony from other students.
“I just thought, I don’t believe you," Ms Donoghue said. “I had no reason to distrust what my daughter and her friend were saying.”
She claimed her inquiries were effectively stonewalled by both the school and the council, in what the mother described as a "complete disregard for parents and parental rights".
Ms Donoghue said she reached her “wit’s end” after she still failed to get any clarity after her local MP wrote to the chair of the school governors, kickstarting her escalation to legal action.
A spokesman for East Riding of Yorkshire Council said: “We have been made aware of a query around our admission arrangements and are working to understand the issues, and we will respond in due course.”
Meanwhile, Beverley High School’s chair of governors, John Dunning, declined to comment on the allegations from Ms Donoghue at this time, the school insists it remains a single-sex institution.
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