A SCHOOL has an astonishing 17 children changing gender - but a whistleblower claims the students are being tricked into doing so because they're autistic.

The source - a teacher at the school - said vulnerable youngsters with mental health problems are being led to believe they're the wrong sex.

3 A teacher at a school where 17 people are changing sex says they're autistic and are being tricked into doing so Credit: Getty - Contributor

She told the Mail on Sunday she felt compelled to speak out because she feared many of the pupils could be taking puberty blocker drugs, which prevent the body from maturing.

The teacher, whose identity has been concealed by the paper, said she was advised to keep parents and other teachers in the dark if a pupil claimed to be transgender.

She claims older pupils who changed gender "groomed" younger students to follow suit.

One autistic teenager, who has since left the school, is set to have a double mastectomy.

Conservative MP David Davies congratulated the teacher for coming forward.

He told the Mail on Sunday: "I congratulate this teacher for coming out and telling us what I have long suspected has been going on in schools. It is horrendous that children are being encouraged by other pupils to identify as transgender, particularly if they have autism.

3 Conservative MP David Davies congratulated the teacher on coming forward, adding that the situation is 'scandalous' Credit: AFP or licensors

"Parents are not told about this and there is no way of challenging these pupils who are convinced by others that they have a problem they almost certainly do not have. Tragically the end result could be irreversible surgical procedures. This is scandalous."

The 17 pupils wanting to change gender are following in the footsteps of a teenager who has now left the school and is planning a double mastectomy.

The teacher said that student, who was born female, told her she wanted to identify as non-binary-a person – with no specific gender – in January 2014, at the age of 16 and two years after being diagnosed as autistic.

After consulting with her parents, the school agreed to change the student’s name on the register to one that was gender neutral.

3 The whistleblower fears many of the pupils could be taking powerful drugs to halt development

Teachers also agreed to use both male and female pronouns depending what gender the student identified as on any given day.

The teacher said in the interview: "These pronouns could change from hour to hour depending how the student was feeling."

According to an internal report, a third of patients referred to the Tavistock Clinic, the UK’s only NHS service for young people confused about their gender, have strong autistic traits.

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The rise in numbers coincided with activists demanding more rights for transgender people.

The Government is now consulting on whether to allow people to change gender without medical diagnoses.

This has sparked a furious debate about whether men who say they identify as women should be allowed into female-only spaces.

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