Form: The registration paperwork for Barnsley College includes tick boxes for students to indicate their sexual orientation, just below a question asking whether the applicant was the same gender now as at birth A college has been condemned for asking 16 and 17-year-old students whether they were gay or straight on registration forms。
The teenagers were asked to complete the paperwork and indicate whether they were bisexual, a gay man, a lesbian, a heterosexual, a transsexual or 'prefer not to say'。
The questions came on the same form they completed with innocent personal details such as their age, address and contact details。
Some students have been in tears and claim it is an invasion of their privacy。
They demanded to know why such a personal question is on the front of the form along with their names when the information could be provided anonymously。
Student Kelsey Bennett, 16, said: 'You did feel under pressure to tick a box and then if you ticked 'prefer not to say” it might make people question why you have done that.'
Ray Sanchez, 16, was shocked to see the question on the front of the form。
'It was odd because it was amongst a jumble of basic questions you expect like contact details and ethnicity.'
Connor Hewitt, 16, said: 'I don’t get why they need to know.'
Gay campaigners criticised the college's approach and called on staff to review the enrolment procedure。
Wes Streeting, Head of Education at equality campaigners Stonewall, said:‘Sexual orientation monitoring can be a helpful tool in making sure that all students receive a high quality experience, but it is simply not acceptable that students were asked to disclose their sexual orientation in a way that failed to respect their privacy。
'There are lots of examples of excellent practice and Barnsley College really should have done their homework before embarking on a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided initiative.'
Kay Tinkler, co-chairman of the Barnsley Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Forum said it could have been done in a different way。
'I’m not sure why it’s on the front of an enrolment form,' she said。
'Coming from a 16-year-old’s point of view when just filling in your name on a form can be daunting it is probably better done anonymously in a way that respects people’s privacy.'
But a Barnsley College spokesman said it was a method of monitoring the success of protected characteristic groups including age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation。
It was part of the 'general equality duty' which came into force in 2011 which required public authorities to consider how they can 'contribute to advancing equality.'
Barnsley College Principal, Colin Booth, said: 'We apologise to any students who were upset over questions asked on our enrolment form。
'All colleges are required to collect this and similar information in order to fulfill our duties under the Public Sector Equality Duty 2011.
'We will review and change how we collect this information taking into account feedback from our students.'
The college said it used to report on success rates for protected characteristic groups without identifying students。
據(jù)英國《每日郵報》9月6日報道，英國巴恩斯利學(xué)院在學(xué)生注冊表上列出選項，詢問其是同性戀還是異性戀，以及是否是變性人。此舉受到學(xué)生和相關(guān)人士的譴責。
報道稱，在收集學(xué)生年齡、地址和聯(lián)系方式等個人信息的注冊表上，還出現(xiàn)了“男同性戀”、“女同性戀”、“異性戀”、“變性人”和“不想回答”這幾個選項，要求學(xué)生作答。
一些學(xué)生哭著說這些問題侵犯了他們的隱私。他們想知道，為什么原本可以匿名回答的隱私問題會在寫有他們名字的注冊表里列出來。
16歲的凱爾西·貝內(nèi)特說：“在勾選項時真的很有壓力，要是選擇‘不想回答’，別人可能會質(zhì)疑你為什么這么做。”
16歲的蕾·桑切斯看到表格上列出這些的問題感到非常震驚。“這真的很奇怪，因它竟然和聯(lián)系方式、種族這些意料之中的問題出現(xiàn)在一起。”
同樣16歲的康納·休伊特說：“我不明白他們?yōu)槭裁匆私膺@個。”
同性戀活動家紛紛批評該學(xué)校的做法，呼吁工作人員審查注冊程序。
英國同性戀和雙性戀平等權(quán)利組織“石墻”(Stonewall)的韋斯·斯特里廷說：“要確保所有學(xué)生獲得高質(zhì)量體驗，性取向監(jiān)測可能是一種有益的方法，但是以不尊重其隱私的方式要求學(xué)生公開他們的性取向，實在令人難以接受。其實，現(xiàn)在有大量成功的實踐例子，巴恩斯利學(xué)院應(yīng)該事先做好功課，再著手進行這個出于善意最終卻令人誤解的計劃。”
巴恩斯利男同性戀、女同性戀、雙性戀、變性人論壇(Barnsley Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Forum )的聯(lián)合主席凱·廷可勒也表示應(yīng)該換一種方式。她說，“我不確定為什么要把這些問題放在報名表的前面。在16歲的孩子看來，只是在表格上填寫自己的名字就已經(jīng)令人生畏了，也許以尊重隱私的方式讓學(xué)生們匿名提供這樣的信息更好。”
英國2011年生效的《公共部門公平責任法案》(Public Sector Equality Duty)要求公共機構(gòu)了解受保護的特殊群體的年齡、殘疾狀況、變性情況、懷孕和生育、種族、宗教或信仰、性別和性取向，“為推動平等做貢獻”。
巴恩斯利學(xué)院院長科林·布思說：“我們向所有被報名表上的問題困擾的學(xué)生道歉。根據(jù)《公共部門公平責任法案》的規(guī)定，所有院校都必須收集這些或這類信息。但是考慮到學(xué)生們的反應(yīng)，我們將審查并更改收集這類信息的方式。”
