![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
synnoveaevaelSome of the parents need to have their heads examined, but I'm still glad this decision has held.
Teacher to Return After Having Sex Change
EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - To students at Eagleswood Elementary School, she used to be Mr. McBeth. Now, after undergoing a sex change, 71-year-old Lily McBeth is ready to return to teaching as Miss McBeth.
Despite criticism from parents, the school board on Monday stood by its decision to allow McBeth to resume working as a substitute teacher.
After two hours of public debate and a private meeting with McBeth and her lawyer, the board took no action on calls by several parents to bar McBeth from returning to the school where she taught for five years before becoming a woman.
"It was magnificent," McBeth said afterward. "You saw democracy in action."
McBeth, a retired sales executive who was married for 33 years and had three children, underwent gender reassignment surgery last year and re-applied for her job under her new name.
McBeth on Monday told the school board and the crowd that she loves teaching and children, and looks forward to returning to the classroom.
"This is not something I got into just as a whim," she said.
Several parents said children in the school — which consists of kindergarten through sixth grade — were not old enough to understand the concept of changing one's gender.
"I, as a parent, am appalled to have this issue brought into my child's psychology," Steve Bond said.
Vincent Mustacchio predicted "chaos" at the school when the students learned of McBeth's surgery.
Young children will be confused by the conflicting appearance of McBeth, who has a deep voice and masculine features but otherwise looks like a woman, other parents said.
"I will not allow you to put my kids in a petri dish and hope it all turns out fine," said Mark Schnepp, who had taken out an ad in a local newspaper urging parents to turn out for the meeting.
Several people spoke in support of McBeth, including three transgender people, two former students of McBeth's and a handful of others, saying that the fact that she is a good teacher was more important than whether she appears as a man or a woman in class.
"There's really nothing to fear because a person is transgender," said Karina Mari, a mother of three school-age children who said she has transgender relatives.
School board attorney Paul Carr said McBeth was a good teacher who had received favorable reviews during her tenure as a substitute.
Earlier this month, the board voted 4-1 to accept her application to return to the classroom.
It's unclear how soon McBeth will resume teaching, Carr said. That depends on the need for substitutes and the availability of certified teachers who get priority when a spot opens up, he said.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a gay rights advocacy group supporting McBeth's bid to resume teaching, called the school board's action historic.
Teacher to Return After Having Sex Change
EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - To students at Eagleswood Elementary School, she used to be Mr. McBeth. Now, after undergoing a sex change, 71-year-old Lily McBeth is ready to return to teaching as Miss McBeth.
Despite criticism from parents, the school board on Monday stood by its decision to allow McBeth to resume working as a substitute teacher.
After two hours of public debate and a private meeting with McBeth and her lawyer, the board took no action on calls by several parents to bar McBeth from returning to the school where she taught for five years before becoming a woman.
"It was magnificent," McBeth said afterward. "You saw democracy in action."
McBeth, a retired sales executive who was married for 33 years and had three children, underwent gender reassignment surgery last year and re-applied for her job under her new name.
McBeth on Monday told the school board and the crowd that she loves teaching and children, and looks forward to returning to the classroom.
"This is not something I got into just as a whim," she said.
Several parents said children in the school — which consists of kindergarten through sixth grade — were not old enough to understand the concept of changing one's gender.
"I, as a parent, am appalled to have this issue brought into my child's psychology," Steve Bond said.
Vincent Mustacchio predicted "chaos" at the school when the students learned of McBeth's surgery.
Young children will be confused by the conflicting appearance of McBeth, who has a deep voice and masculine features but otherwise looks like a woman, other parents said.
"I will not allow you to put my kids in a petri dish and hope it all turns out fine," said Mark Schnepp, who had taken out an ad in a local newspaper urging parents to turn out for the meeting.
Several people spoke in support of McBeth, including three transgender people, two former students of McBeth's and a handful of others, saying that the fact that she is a good teacher was more important than whether she appears as a man or a woman in class.
"There's really nothing to fear because a person is transgender," said Karina Mari, a mother of three school-age children who said she has transgender relatives.
School board attorney Paul Carr said McBeth was a good teacher who had received favorable reviews during her tenure as a substitute.
Earlier this month, the board voted 4-1 to accept her application to return to the classroom.
It's unclear how soon McBeth will resume teaching, Carr said. That depends on the need for substitutes and the availability of certified teachers who get priority when a spot opens up, he said.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a gay rights advocacy group supporting McBeth's bid to resume teaching, called the school board's action historic.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:09 pm (UTC)These are probably the same parents that don't teach their kids about sex and then are surprised when their kids come home pregnant or having gotten some one pregnant. Or the ones that don't teach their kids about drugs and don't understand why their kids are using drugs before high school.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:11 pm (UTC)When I worked at Six Flags Great Adventure, I played Bugs Bunny. I actually walked around in a six-foot tall Bugs Bunny costume and greeted kids.
Now, some kids would run right up to me and give me a big hug, or get their pictures taken with me, but a great deal of them were horrified. These were the kids whose parents would drag them, screaming up to me, throw them in my arms as they recoiled in abject terror, and grin "PicturewithBugs! PicturewithBugs! Aw! It's only Bugs Bunny! Don't you want your picture with Bugs Bunny!? C'mon, it's only Bugs Bunny! See!??!?".
But they didn't see. The kids didn't recognize the six and a half foot tall furry monster as the same thing as the 4-inch drawing that ran across their screens. It was confusing to them, and they were frightened by it.
Now how many of those parents at the school board meeting who said that a transgender person shouldn't teach because it's "confusing to the children" are the very SAME person who force Bugs Bunny on their kids at Six Flags?
Where's the huge social movement to ban costumed characters at amusement parks all over the country!?
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:17 pm (UTC)i have seen MANY a terrified child at great adventure, or the carnival, or the circus.. or at the MALL with santa & the easter bunnie.
yet these parents think that it's fine to throw a kid in their lap and take a picture.
but take a woman who loves to teach, but just cause she USED to be a man, whoooaaaaa nillie. let's not have THAT now.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:30 pm (UTC)YES, YES, and YES. I am THRILLED to see that they upheld it and that they allowed her to come back.
So she's a woman now, what does that have to do with her teaching ability? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING.
Don't believe in transgender changing? Great. DON'T GET ONE, THEN!
God dammit, close minded people like that, PISS ME OFF.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 06:36 pm (UTC)that's mah siddie :)
*thinks on it*
Date: 2006-02-28 06:37 pm (UTC)Re: *thinks on it*
Date: 2006-02-28 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:02 pm (UTC)Can't the parents just say she's old and that's why she looks like a man and talks like that? I mean, she's 71 years old. Speaking of which - isn't that a little late in life to have that sort of operation? Maybe it's just the thought of geriatrics having sex that's grossing me out. However she does have a new vag now instead of a shrivelled up penis, so maybe it'll give her a new life in bed.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:44 pm (UTC)although, i'm rather happy with my vag. no meat curtains so i'm happy.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 09:17 pm (UTC)I'm not a fan of the roast beef look.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:43 pm (UTC)like 1984 or something... "Take him in for... GENDER REASSIGNMENT"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
That sort o thing.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:53 pm (UTC)that's true. i like transgender better, m'self.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:55 pm (UTC)Transgenders! more than meets the eye!
Transgenders! their genitals're disguised!
...sorry. 80's flashback. happens sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 08:58 pm (UTC)<3 to the chu.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 09:02 pm (UTC):D
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 09:04 pm (UTC)chu, the truly demented dementor.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-28 10:39 pm (UTC)at least, i hope so.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 01:31 am (UTC)oh god.. lol
no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 05:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 04:40 am (UTC)Transgendered and proud!!!
Date: 2006-03-01 09:29 pm (UTC)I know the girls will be too...
Re: Transgendered and proud!!!
Date: 2006-03-01 09:50 pm (UTC)you know it sexy!