A Comox transgender girl has started classes at a new school this week after a series of bullying incidents led her parents to remove her from her old school. The transfer comes just days before her former school board considers implementing anti-discrimination policy that her family believes would have protected her.
Harriette Cunningham, 10, went into emotional crisis after a boy “outed” her to a new friend at école Au-coeur-de-l’île, declaring that Harriette was “really a boy,” her father, Colin Cunningham, said. Harriette is transgender, which means her gender identity differs from the sex she was assigned at birth.
The incident was one in a string that were dealt with inconsistently, Cunningham said, because there was no policy outlining how to handle discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“She was just exhausted. I’ve never seen her like this. It just really felt like the last straw,” Cunningham said.
Although Harriette has left the school, staff at the francophone school board plan to present the first draft of a new policy to the board Saturday, superintendent Mario Cyr said. He expects it to be overwhelmingly approved.
“We’re really saddened by Harriette’s case,” Cyr said. “[The trustees] were all in agreement that we needed to act.”
A 30-day review process will follow the first reading, involving consultations with principals, teachers and parents. The policy could be in place by January.
If it passes, the francophone school board will join 26 others, out of a total 60, that have already implemented LGBT anti-discrimination policies. If it does not, the Cunningham family plans to file a complaint.
“We’re still passionate to see this policy through to pave the way for future students,” Cunningham said. “That’s the reason Harriette wanted to go public in the first place.”
Two parents at the school said they were surprised to hear that Harriette had to switch schools.
“I’m sure there was always some stuff going on with the kids, just because of the way kids are,” said Debra Massicotte, who has kids in Grade 7 and 11. “But I think our school would have been as tolerant or more tolerant than most — it’s a small school.”
Harriette’s experience is not uncommon, according to Egale Canada Human Rights Trust. “We quite regularly hear from families who have taken their kids out of school … or even move to find a school community that’s supportive,” said Ryan Dyck, the group’s director of research and policy.
Five of 12 Vancouver Island school boards lack a policy directed at LGBT students. However, three superintendents said their schools are in the process of developing one.
Lawrence Tarasoff, superintendent of school district 84 (Vancouver Island West), said bullying is dealt with through the school’s code of conduct, which upholds the B.C. Human Rights Code.
But Dyck called explicit anti-discrimination “hugely important.”
“Homophobia and transphobia are still very much a core part, unfortunately, of our communities and our societal attitudes,” he said.
That makes the proactive adoption of policy important, he said. “If you just reference a human rights code, rather than naming the grounds, most people won’t read that as including sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Harriette returned from her first day at école Robb Road on Wednesday optimistic — she didn’t have to field a single question about her gender. Her classmates had already been educated on transgenderism, with a meeting held before she started and letters sent home to parents.
“The only question they really asked me was: ‘What other school do you come from?’ And my dad told me at the little meeting with all the kids in my class, the two main things were, ‘Is she coming on the field trip?’ and ‘Does she have a locker?’ ”
She said that if bullies start questioning her identity, she feels safer knowing there’s a policy in place.
“I know it’s probably going to happen again, but they already have a plan, if it does.”
