A teacher transitioned at the end of term. The school said No, What she did next couldn’t go unnoticed.
There are times in one’s life when they feel the mask they had to hide behind for safety has to go, that in order for one to reach their full potential they have to be true to who they are and how they feel.
Few years ago employers were not ready to accept having a Trans employee especially in the education sector, so when a primary school teacher decided to transition, She was fired.
Juno Roche has always known she was born into the wrong body, since she was a little kid.
“I was born in a particular frame so the society saw me as being male, I never ever felt remotely male,” She said in the short documentary Else. “If I felt male, I would’ve quiet frankly stayed there, coz it would’ve been easier,”
It was the year 2009, when Juno told the headteacher that she was transgender and would be returning to school as a woman.
“ I think I was a really good teacher and I felt I was lying to my pupils. I was telling them they can be whatever they want to be, to be authentic and truthful to themselves, while I was lying to myself and hiding,” She said.
The headteacher suggested she’d be better off transitioning privately, before returning to work in a different school where no one knew her gender history. A common practice back then.
Juno wanted to go back to her school after transitioning, hence she took a legal action against her employer, using the Equality act 2010.
“We have the Equality Act, and it was important to show that people have to follow the law. You can think whatever you want of Trans people — but in this country there is a law and you have to follow it.”
It took her two years to reach an agreement, it was an out of court settlement. Roche then returned to her school. The reception from the children was fantastic — they settled into calling her Miss. A letter was sent to parents, and apart from a few negative responses, there were largely no issues.
The legal battle she’d gone through made her realise the lacking of Trans policies in Education, so she decided to give up her job in order to help other trans people, and their schools, deal with the process.
“There are just no trans policies in schools,” she says. “If you have children who are trans or gender variant and don’t have a policy, how can you protect them? How can you make sure teachers transitioning are given their legal rights?” — She added.
