Transgender pupil wins right to wear skirt to school
A TRANSGENDER teenager who took legal action against her school has won the right to wear a skirt and use the girls’ toilets.
Lily Madigan, 18, who was born a boy, hired a solicitor after being sent home from school for wearing girls’ uniform.
As a result, St Simon Stock Catholic School agreed to allow Miss Madigan to wear female dress and use the ladies’ toilets and changing rooms.
Miss Madigan said: ‘I am very happy about the changes but I felt it was something I shouldn’t have had to fight so hard for, if at all.
‘I’m encouraged in that I’ve seen what I’m capable of achieving and I’m proud, but I’m not encouraged about the school’s attitude to equality.’
Miss Madigan, from Chatham, Kent, announced her transition on Face-book in January and began wearing women’s clothing to school in March.
Earlier this year, she also legally changed her name from Liam by deed poll. Speaking about the day she was told to go home and change, she said: ‘I decided to come in dressed in the girls’ dress code, which basically meant I was wearing a top instead of a shirt. It made me feel so happy, until I was sent home.’
Frustrated by the discrimination she faced, Miss Madigan set up a petition campaigning for her school to allow transgender students to dress in whatever they feel comfortable.
In one post she wrote: ‘The problem is the transphobic environment, not transgender people. Please don’t ostracise and minimise me. It hurts.’
She also instructed a lawyer to write to the school laying out the details of the 2010 Equality Act, which states that a person ‘must not be discrimi-nated against because of their gender reassignment as a transsexual’.
Now not only has the school in Maid-stone agreed to allow her to wear girls’ uniform, but has also pledged to train staff on the issue of transgender pupils. It also wrote to Miss Madigan to apologise.
A report by MPs at the beginning of the year called for schools to offer bet-ter support to transgender pupils.
It said around a third of transgender adults and half of ‘gender-variant’ young people attempt suicide.
According to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, 91 per cent of transgender boys and 66 per cent of transgender girls experience harassment or bullying at school, which MPs said could cause pupils to leave education earlier than expected.
A spokesman for St Simon Stock, which is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, said: ‘We value highly the views of all our students, and take all points of view into account as we develop. ‘Trans-gender is an important issue for us, as for schools up and down the country. As an inclusive, Catholic academy, we are confident that the attention we have given to transgen-der, including carefully listening to stu-dents, has been invaluable in us going even further to make sure all students are happy and comfortable, so that they can be as successful as possible.’