Former Inverness head teacher embroiled in row after controversy over social media posts of drag act who read book to primary pupils; Michelle Watson, who leads Glencoats Primary in Paisley, was criticised when concerns were later raised about sexual content of posts by drag performer; Renfrewshire Council has apologised but Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black has defended the invite

THE head teacher at the centre of the storm over a drag queen being invited to her Paisley school to speak to children, was previously head of Drakies PS in Inverness.

Michelle Watson was on the receiving end of furious criticism and online hate after it became known the drag performer Nathan Mullen read a book to all age groups at Glencoats Primary last week as part of LGBT History Month.

Two years ago when Ms Watson was head at Drakies, senior children became famous worldwide after a video of them singing This is Me, the hit ballad from the film The Greatest Showman, was hailed by its Hollywood star Hugh Jackman who said the children and teachers were "awesome."

The song was posted on Drakies PS Twitter page after it was recorded during a celebration of diversity at the school. Drakies said it was “an amazing song to empower and celebrate diversity and difference”.

Jackman retweeted the video to his 12 million followers and said: “Hey @DrakiesPS… you are ALL awesome and unique… and your teachers are too!”

Renfrewshire Council said it was investigating after concerns were raised about the sexual content of previous social media posts by the drag queen who has the stage name FlowJob, and it apologised for the concern caused by his attendance at Glencoats Primary as part of their LGBT history month.

Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black, who also took part in the LGBT event with parent council members at Glencoats Primary, defended it as "a great day", and added in a Tweet "If my school had invited a gay MP and a drag queen to visit during LGBT History Month, or even acknowledged that LGBT History Month existed, it would have made an immeasurable difference to the difficult childhoods my LGBT classmates and I had."

The MP also Tweeted: "I completely applaud Glencoats for putting on such a great day, and I'm so grateful to have been invited along."

Ms Watson in a Tweet that was later deleted said: "“The negativity, trolling, personal comments, homophobia and hate that has come my way and to those I work with has been truly awful."

A Renfrewshire Council spokeswoman said that learning about equalities and diversity has an important role in the school curriculum, and added: "All school visits are arranged and managed with the wellbeing of pupils first and foremost.

"However it is clear in this case, the social media content associated with the speaker's stage persona is not appropriate for children and had we been aware of this, the visit would not have been arranged.

"We are sorry for the concern this has caused and are investigating."

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