By Dakota Vernezze, staff writer
At the end of 2014, transgender teen, Leelah Al- corn, ended her life after years of struggling with her gender identity. In her suicide note, posted to the blogging website, Tumblr, the 17 year old talked about her struggle with her parents not accepting who she was, putting her in conversion therapy, and isolating her from social media. This death made the news nationwide, putting transgender teen safety into consideration.
Within Indian Trail High School & Academy, one can never tell the true gender identity of another student. But is the school transgender friendly? A 17-year-old Indian Trail transgender student suggests it could be better.
“They should allow [transgender] students to have a unisex bathroom and for teachers to respect their pronouns,” the junior said.
The student is one of the few openly transgender students at IT, which has many resources for LGBT+ students that they can go to if they have any problems.
“We have the club here at school, who I know would be accepting and surround the student and give them support,” said Elizabeth Ekstrom, one of the counselors at IT.
The Gay-straight Alliance club meets every other Tuesday in the Library from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. after school and is open to any student. The GSA also has plans to try and make the school more transgender friendly.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, nearly nine out of 10 transgen- der students reported experiencing transphobic or homophobic harassment and a majority of transgender students said they had been physically harassed at school in the last year.
Here at KUSD, the district is currently trying to adopt a new anti-bullying policy, according to Dean Erik Schlick.
“We’re looking into the whole anti-bullying policy that impacts so many students,” Schlick said.
“If we hear of a student being bullied for any reason, usually we’ll talk to the student right away. A lot of times we’ll involve the dean because it’s a safety issue.” Ekstrom stated.
The bullying doesn’t always come from school though. Much like Leelah Alcorn, parents don’t always accept their child’s gender identity. It can be tough to deal with an unaccepting home, but there is always someone to turn to.
“We can just let the student know no matter what goes on at home, in the school building you’re respected for who you are and you can come talk to us about anything,” said Ekstrom. Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives, and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt, according to thetrevorproject.org. The Trevor Project is a website devoted to the suicide prevention of LGBT+ people. Their web- site offers many resources where people can speak with someone to get help, including an online chat, texting, and a phone number.
The country is growing more accepting of all sorts of people, and schools nationwide are taking actions against homophobia and transphobia. No matter what a person identifies as, there are always people who will accept them for who they are.
“The bottom line for any student whose ever feeling lost or misunderstood, if they come to school and they feel like this is a safe place and have one or two adults who they can talk to, that’s our goal.” Ekstrom said.