Britain - Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils...

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Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils

When 'Lauren' decided she wanted to be recognised as a girl, life at 

school became a nightmare. Should teachers be doing more for 

transgender pupils?

By Rachel Pugh

Thursday, 24 April 2008

The day that Lauren Quick, 11, started at the mixed comprehensive in 

her Yorkshire home town, an older lad stormed into her classroom at 

break, shouting, "Oi, there's a tranny in here ­ show me where it is!"

Suddenly, Lauren, who had been insisting from the age of three that 

she had "a girl brain in a boy's body", was surrounded. She was 

distraught and, weeks later, made her first attempt to kill herself. 

Two further attempts followed in the next five months ­ the last in 

the school lavatories.

Her life, says mother Jan, had become a living nightmare. Every day, 

she faced shouts of "man beast" and "tranny" from pupils, as well as 

calls to "get your dick out" ­ even, on one occasion, when she was 

being escorted by a teacher. Lauren's response was to self-harm on a 

regular basis.

The town's police hate crimes unit became involved three times after 

several incidents, including one pupil spitting in her face and a 

mother who was picking up offspring shouting, "You fucking tranny", 

through the car window as Lauren walked home from school. Lauren was 

more often absent than in school.

Although the school supported Lauren's desire to be accepted as a 

girl, and made determined efforts to stamp out the bullying ­ taking 

the perpetrator of each incident aside to explain Lauren's 

circumstances ­ one day, everything came to a head. Lauren was 

ambushed on the way home by older boys, who tried to remove her skirt 

in an attempt to see her genitals.

Lauren refused point-blank to return to school. Jan obtained a 

transfer for her to a nearby high school, which had already 

successfully dealt with a transgender pupil. Lauren lasted only a few 

weeks. Now 14, she is being educated three days a week in a unit for 

long-term ill and severely bullied pupils. She would like to go back 

to school, but she and her mother doubt that it will ever be possible.

"There are no easy answers, but the school was just handling it on the 

hoof," says Jan. "There was no attempt to plan anything. The school 

was totally unprepared for dealing with a kid like Lauren."

The deputy head of that school, who still speaks to Lauren on the 

phone occasionally, agrees. "We were dealing with things that we could 

not possibly ever have expected. Who teaches you how to deal with a 13- year-old who wants to be a girl, but is having erections in class? We 

were dealing with each incident as it came up, but perhaps we should 

have tackled it as a school."

Lauren's story reflects the difficulties experienced by British 

schools when faced with a pupil who does not fit neatly in to the 

"boy" or "girl" box. It's not just confusion about personal pronouns, 

either ­ even the most mundane problems, such as which lavatories a 

trans pupil should use and where they change for PE, become major 

issues.

In Lauren's case, she was not allowed to use the girls' loos, and felt 

humiliated at having to use the disabled ones, particularly as they 

were kept locked and she had to ask for the key.

Looking at her now, making some toast in the family kitchen, she is 

like any other gangly 14-year-old girl with her dyed, shoulder-length 

hair, denim skirt and leggings. But she has male genitalia and, by 

British law, must wait until she is 16 to have medical treatment to 

give her the body she feels was denied her at birth.

According to figures provided by the Gender Identity Research and 

Education Service (Gires), one in 1,000 school children suffer from 

gender dysphoria ­ roughly one pupil for every high school ­ though 

not all of them will seek gender reassignment surgery.

Lauren is typical in that she has been the target of severe bullying. 

According to research by Gires and the transgender pressure group 

Press For Change, more transgender pupils report being bullied than 

gay pupils, who themselves report rates of name-calling of 82 per 

cent. Most fail to complete their school education, although they 

catch up later and gain more than the national average number of 

qualifications.

More seriously, around half of all transgender teenagers will make a 

suicide attempt before they turn 20. In February, 10-year-old Cameron 

McWilliams was found hanged in Doncaster. The inquest revealed he had 

expressed a desire to be a girl.

In this highly volatile atmosphere, schools must somehow act in the 

best interests of their most vulnerable pupils. As Bernard Reed, 

trustee of Gires, says: "Schools think it is so rare that they don't 

take it seriously, but when a trans child comes into a school, the 

effect can be seismic."

The Home Office acknowledges the problem of transphobic bullying and 

has commissioned Gires to produce information for schools explaining 

gender variance, its medical, legal and equality aspects, which will 

be displayed in the Crime Reduction section of the Home Office website.

Press for Change has just produced a "toolkit" for further education 

and sixth form colleges, consisting of 21 five-minute lessons aimed at 

leaders of education institutions. It was commissioned by the Learning 

and Education Council, the trade union Unison and the Centre for 

Excellence in Leadership.

As the deputy head at Lauren's former school says: "We had nothing to 

help us, but when Lauren had been at school for a while we began 

getting calls from teachers at other school asking for advice with 

similar situations."

Not all transgender pupils' school experiences are negative, however. 

When Pippa James explained at a parents' evening that the reason her 

15-year-old son Tim's grades had plummeted was because of his despair 

following his recent declaration that he wanted to be a girl, the 

school pulled around to protect the bright teenager.

Although Pippa and her husband offered to remove Tim, the year head 

backed his desire to "transition" to become "Becky" over a school 

holiday, declaring that they knew him and could "ensure his safety".

Shortly after, Tim tried to hang himself. Following a number of 

meetings between his parents and the school, Tim was told to stay home 

for a day while groups of pupils in his year in the mixed 

comprehensive were told by well-briefed teachers what was happening to 

Tim, what to expect and that bullying would not be tolerated.

Curious pupils asked questions, but accepted it and simply viewed him 

as the fastest runner in their year. According to the family and the 

school, not a single case of bullying against Tim was reported ­ even 

when he came back with long hair and female clothes.

Becky, now 19 and a talented artist, has undergone gender reassignment 

surgery in Thailand paid for by her parents, and is intending to go to 

art school.

As Pippa says: "In terms of school, it was a wonderfully positive 

experience. Becky's life, apart from school at the time, was terrible 

and she was in utter despair. If school had not dealt with her kindly 

and been accepting, it would have been the last straw and she would 

have ended it all."

The despair to which Pippa alludes is because of the battles that 

Becky, Lauren and all young trans teenagers in the UK face in 

obtaining medical help for the outward signs of puberty, until they 

make a decision about gender reassignment.

England has only one clinic ­ at London's Tavistock and Portman Trust 

­ which offers advice on gender dysphoria to young people. In Britain, 

the reversible use of drugs is banned before the age of 16 ­ although 

other EU countries and the US permit their use.

Jan Quick and the James family have re-mortgaged their homes to pay 

for their children's treatment. Lauren goes twice a year to Boston, in 

the United States, for puberty blockers, having been turned down by 

the Tavistock.

Pushing for reform of UK medical protocols is a major focus for Press 

For Change, but the organisation is also disturbed by the lack of 

protection for trans pupils in school. Goods and services regulations 

just introduced by the Government's Equalities Office do not address 

transphobic harassment in schools as they specifically exclude 

education.

"Individual schools now could choose not to educate a child, not to 

allow them to sing in a choir or to go on a school trip," says 

Professor Stephen Whittle, an equalities lawyer and a professor at 

Manchester Metropolitan University, who started out female. "The only 

protection for kids will be under education law ­ protecting the right 

to education as such, but not the nature of it."

Many campaigners for transgender equality are pinning their hopes on 

the Single Equality Bill, which is expected next year. The Government 

has been consulting on it and will report in the summer. One of the 

questions is whether the Bill should extend to schools.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is calling for explicit 

protection for transgender children in an equality Act, and extension 

of the public sector duty to promote equality for transgender people.

"All children have the right to be educated in a fair and tolerant 

environment, free from bullying." said a commission spokesperson. "At 

the moment, a very vulnerable group of young people are not adequately 

protected by the law."

-

The names of transgender young people and their families have been 

changed to protect them

Transgender in history ­ and today

* Elagabalus, who reigned as Roman Emperor of the Severan dynasty from 

218-222, offered vast sums of money to any physician who could provide 

him with female genitalia.

* Jennie Hodgers was born in County Louth, in Ireland, around 1843, 

but enlisted as a private in the Illinois Infantry Regiment under the 

name of Albert Cashier. She was accepted as a male and fought 40 

battles on the Unionist side under Ulysses Grant.

* Gires has prepared a booklet for the Department of Health, "Gender 

variance in children and young people: Answering families' questions", 

which is available in printed form as well as online 

(<www.gires.org.uk>).

* Parents, teachers and teenagers affected by transgender issues can 

find more information on the Mermaids website at <www.mermaids.freeuk.com >

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