Teachers

I recently read an article about a teacher in Florida who refused to call a transgender student by their preferred pronouns. He blatantly refused.

Thankfully, the school board responded appropriately. Why do teachers feel they can ignore reasonable requests from their students. I suspect this teacher has no idea about the statistics regarding transgender youth being called by their chosen name and pronouns. I also suspect some would not care what the statistics say. They don’t believe transgender is real and refuse to acknowledge their students gender identity.

The school board is using this as an opportunity to provide more education and diversity training to their staff. I wonder where this teacher was when the first diversity training happened, if it did at all.

Organizations like Gender Spectrum and HRC’s foundation provide great training for teachers, administrators and staff at schools. LGBTQ kids are at much higher risk of being bullied by their peers. They shouldn’t also be bullied by their teachers. This is the 21^st century. We know more about being transgender than ever before. It is real. No question!