Transsexual, 16, forces school to let him sit exam dressed as a girl
Head threatened with Equality Act
A TRANSGENDER pupil has used equality laws to force his headmaster to allow him to sit a GCSE exam wearing a skirt. Ashlyn Parram, 16, who was born a boy but is undergoing gender reassignment treatment, said that at first he was told he could not sit the paper because he was not wearing boys’ uniform.
But he said headmaster Chris Walls backed down after he showed him a copy of the Equality Act 2010, which stated he had to be treated the same as other pupils.
Ashlyn, who was wearing make-up and hair extensions as well as a girl’s uniform, claimed, however, that when he returned to the sports hall for the GCSE maths paper he was segregated from other pupils. He was put at the back of the room 40ft from everyone else.
Ashlyn, who used to be called Lewis, said: ‘The whole way through the exam I felt like bursting into tears, and it was around 15 minutes before I even started the exam because I was so upset.’
He claims to have been victimised several times at Giles Academy in Boston, Lincolnshire.
The teenager, who has now left the school and is hoping to go to college to study maths, said: ‘They made me feel like a freak.
‘It’s sad that people can’t be more open-minded.’
His mother, IT worker Miranda Johnson, 42, lodged a complaint. It was investigated by the chairman of governors, Frank Pickett, and dismissed. In a letter, he said all the allegations had been rejected.
Ashlyn’s mother said: ‘We don’t want a penny of compensation. It’s not about the money – it’s about protecting other children and educating people.
‘To be made to sit on your own during an exam is horrendous. If Ashlyn had been black or disabled there would have been uproar.’
Ashlyn announced he was gay at 11 but later realised he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body.
Doctors and social services referred him to specialists, who diagnosed gender dysphoria.
He is now on a waiting list to start hormone treatment. From the age of 18 he will be eligible for full sexchange surgery.
The first clash with the school happened earlier this year when Ashlyn was told to take swimming lessons with boys despite feeling uncomfortable about it. His family said that, in the end, sympathetic staff quietly let him skip classes.
Later a female teacher mimicked a ‘slutty’ walk in front of laughing pupils, pretending to be Ashlyn. Giles Academy confirmed that the
‘They made me feel like a freak’
teacher had been spoken to about how to ‘conduct herself in future’.
Ashlyn – who lives with his mother, brother, sister and stepfather, a partner in a firm of surveyors – made his first appearance in a girl’s uniform on June 1.
It was a plain clothes day and other children turned up in outlandish and ripped outfits. Ashlyn said he was banned from going outside at breaktime because he was ‘ruining the school’s reputation’. The exam incident happened ten days later.
The Equality Act protects transsexuals from discrimination and harassment in a range of situations, including ‘by a teacher at school’.
A school spokesman said: ‘Every time we get a complaint we will deal with it in a professional way.’