What petty childish performative bullshit.

A secondary school specialising in performing arts has quietly cancelled Harry Potter author JK Rowling – replacing her as a house name over her ‘comments and viewpoints surrounding trans people’.

The Boswells School in Chelmsford, Essex, had honoured the writer for one of its in-school groups, which had also been labelled with the quality of ‘self-discipline’.

But it emerged today she had been replaced over the summer with Olympic hero Dame Kelly Holmes.

The school had announced plans to review Rowling’s name in July after ‘requests from students and staff’. 

…

The school’s issues with Rowling, 56, were laid bare in a newsletter seen by MailOnline, which featured an image of the house logo with the writer’s name erased.

See? See? We blanked her! Aren’t we clever and grown-up.

It said: ‘The Boswells House System embeds a sense of community, friendship and healthy competition amongst both students and staff.

A strong house identity empowers our students to participate and thrive in all aspects of school life, both in and out of the classroom. Here at the Boswells we have 6 Houses which are represented by British citizens who have excelled in an area of our Boswells Learning Bridge which includes integrity, emotional intelligence, grit, resourcefulness, self-discipline and bravery.

‘However, following numerous requests by students and staff we are reviewing the name of our red house ‘Rowling’ and in light of J.K Rowling’s comments and viewpoints surrounding trans people. Her views on this issue do not align with our school policy and school beliefs – a place where people are free to be.’

Implying that Rowling thinks people should not be “free to be,” which of course is bullshit.

It’s ironic, to me at least, that they share her approval of this idea of school “houses” and how they foster Healthy Competition or something. I don’t think that’s true at all, I think it’s a crappy idea for schools to promote rivalries among the students. I also think it’s crude and silly to portray a house system in which one house calls itself “Slytherin.” It’s always reminded me of the Monty Python bit in which a burglar rings the doorbell and announces himself: “Burglar, madam.”