It’s been forty-one years since I last taught a high school class. I went into business rather than to make the kind of “mistake” I watched everyone else in my family make.
My mother and father were teachers. My three older siblings all were teachers . . . and I watched year after year while they struggled to make ends meet while suffering daily abuse at the hands of immature and unruly children.
I’m sorry, but I watched the video of the boy who cross-dressed and was suspended. He’s appears to be an egocentric brat!
The story doesn’t give enough information to draw a complete and accurate conclusion but here’s how I read it.
1.) There was enough information introduced to suggest that this young lad craved attention and was very willing to disrupt his classroom to get it. “A lot of my suspensions. . . .” The severity of this punishment may have been due to the cumulative behavior of this boy.
2.) This happened during the last weeks of the school term, a time we teachers call “the bewitching hour”. Teachers and administrators struggle to maintain discipline all year long, but during May and early June it’s impossible to win that war.
3.) The boy’s mother seemed as immature as him. Many of the parents I’ve run into over the years have been much less mature than their children. When you have a child that loves to push the envelope and a parent who has no idea where the brake pedal is located, things get out off hand.
4.) The boy didn’t make any attempt to suggest he had gender issues. He was simply trying to stir things up.
This boy is one of the reasons live is so hard for those of us who really do have a pressing need to cross-dressing.
Over the years cross-dressing has taken its lumps on Big Closet. The majority of people who comment and write stories seem to view cross-dressers are second-class transgendered.
When the cross-dresser is like this boy . . . dressing for the sensationalism I tend to agree. When the cross-dresser is seeking self-actualization, I see no difference between that and any other action that relieves the pain of gender dysphoria.
Males who don high heels and a dress aren't automatically heroic!
This was a non-story and the media was wrong to publish it.
Jill
Comments
The Other Side of the Suspension
Yes, the media will destroy people for a story and not give a damn about the fallout.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
I agree with you Angela
If he had done this earlier in the year and had checked with the school than he would not have had a problem. Serves the little brat right! Rules are rules laws are laws break them and pay. If they are wrong then work to change them. I do not need this kid dimenishing what the TG community has worked and is working so hard to achieve.
As for you being a teacher well you were not mine but thank you and your folks.
Did you know that in the 3rd world countries school teachers have the right to smack the snott out of unruly kids and physicaly toss them out where thier folks can smack them again for screwing up thier education. They might not get a high education but while at school they behave and respect the teachers.
James
I agree
I didn't see anything here which did more than draw attention to the child, who was something of a self-publicist. Perhaps they should have insisted he attend dressed like it all the time, he'd soon have got fed up with it, especially 4" heels.
If I remember correctly it was the mother who called the press - not something that was likely if the child was genuinely transgender, then one tends to eschew publicity.
Angharad
Angharad
Crossdressing: the crazy new teenage fad
Now that it's media worthy I could see this fad really taking off.
A way to get attention and upset a bunch of adults,while not really addressing
anything relevant to gender identity or serving to enlighten even the boys who do it.
At the end of the day they could remain just as homo and transphobic as ever.
"It's a goof, Beevis. It's not like I like it or anything..."
"Huh huh, huh huh, huh huh!"
Although as wacky teen fads go I guess it'd be a step up from
coming to school in a trench coat & shooting everything that moves.
~hugs, Laika
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
I just remembered the young man in England.
At least he ha a cause, No shorts for the boys uniform, and the rules did not make the uniforms gender specific,and he did wear "A" uniform. :)
James
The mother
Now, she was a sight. I haven't seen that much make-up outside Boots for years. The whole impression the child gave out was 'spoilt attention junkie' and the mother matched him well for that one.
Attention junkies
You don't punish attention junkies by giving them public attention. The best thing would have been to ignore him and let him live with the ridicule by his classmates, or send him home to wear proper clothing.
Sure he probably only did this for attention, but it wasn't forbidden, so the school is at fault.
*snrk*
I once spent an entire day - in high school - wearing those 'deely-boppers'. You know, the spring balls on a headband?
Nobody even looked twice at me. In fact, it was somewhat expected. Even the teachers didn't worry about it. Frankly, I think this school is full of it.
As long as he was decently covered, who cares what he wears? I mean, a bikini would have been out of the question, or even a one-piece woman's swimsuit, but that's because of the exposing himself.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
The Other Side of Suspension
I have a high degree of respect for the writer of this blog. I once considered teaching while getting my degree at a university but changed my mind after talking to recently graduated students that were know teachers. One was a roommate, also I worked for the university in the maintenance department, with professionals that ran the AC for the school and did the electrical, and they did not deal directly with students, but they all said the same thing. Great place to work at, if it were not for the students.
I read the article, and saw a picture of him in a dress. Cute boy, and would have made an attractive girl, if not beautiful. He has a history of doing this. I come from a cultural ethnic background where no mother would allow her son to act feminine. I once had very conservative ideas about this topic. I remember playing baseball in grammar school against another school, and a member of their team was wearing shorts. Unheard off! You wore Levis and a white tee-shirt, or a baseball uniform. But things change. Some of us changed very little. In my grammar school the only reason you did not get bullied is because we had too many WW2 veterans as teachers, all it took was one or two to set us straight. Then if are parents found out, when we got home, the lecture and spanking would be nothing compared to the ass kicking we would get from our father.
I have changed and a hold a degree from a university and have taken more classes after I graduated than it took to get my degree. I consider myself rough around the edges but knowledgeable. Are environment is polluted and there are far too many endocrine disruptors in it to write this boy off. His conduct is telling us something and we need to listen. I know enough about sociology and human behavior to know what this boy is doing is not winning him any friends. There is something wrong.
We should expect more behavior like this young boy. Our environment is polluted with endocrine disruptors, some environments more than others, and some boys more susceptible than others. Endocrine disruptors feminize young boys and make them more apt to cross dress. The teachers who suspended this boy as punishment have their head in there ass, when they should have it up, and listening two what this young boy is telling them.
Mother is not a mom
I think the mother should lose her parental rights, she let her son who was so self centered go to school in heels and a dress.
We know who runs that home and its not mother and father.
I lost a job because I was honest with my employer about my being transgender. she was afraid I'd show up at work with a bouffant hair do and an evening gown. She had a PHd in psychology.
I think the boy needs to be suspended and have to retake the entire year of school again. I believe mom needs to be taken to court and lose her child.
what parent in their right mind would let their son go out the front door then call the media because he is in heels and a dress.
I'm glad I chose Behavioral Science over teaching. this mother ceetainly nedsto be observed and her issues resolved efoer she can ever parent again. Maybe sterilize her so she can't have any more children.
Jill Micayla
Be kinder than necessary,Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
Jill Micayla
Be kinder than necessary,Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
Kindness is Good
I like your motto,
Be kinder than necessary, Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
It is something that should not be forgotten when
thinking of the mother and her son. Peoples views
differ. If she had punished her son some people
would find fault at her lack of understanding. Let
the boy wear his dress and high heels. It is in the
end only clothing. If it is a fad it will go away.
didn't bother with the Vid
Looked at the 'news' story and the pic and even allowing a bit of contextual juggling by the editor just rolled my eyes and moved on. Extrovert? yeah. Gay? Maybe. Trans whatever? I seriously doubt it. The suspension seemed a little over the top but judging by comments there's a bit more to it...shrug. Life will probably maybe eventually teach them something. Or not.
Kristina