Mother of transgender child pleads for Safe Schools program to continue

THE mother of a transgender primary school student is pleading for funding of the Safe Schools program to continue, saying her daughter was suicidal before it changed her life.

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THE mother of a transgender primary school student is pleading for funding of the Safe Schools program to continue, saying her daughter was suicidal before it changed her life.

The State Government and principals say teachers will miss out on crucial training about gender diversity needed to deliver the program, and students will go without individual support, if the $200,000 allocated to SA each year is cut.

But the Federal Government insists that all the supports needed to help vulnerable students such as the transgender child will remain in place regardless, with more online resources to be tailored to parents of children questioning sexual and gender identity.

The child, 11, was born a boy but insisted she was a girl since she was a toddler. She became “suicidal and completely unmanageable” in 2014, her mother says in a letter to state Education Minister Susan Close.

“At this point, while we loved and supported our daughter, we were in crisis. We wanted to let her transition, but had no idea how to do so,” the mother said.

She said the Safe Schools Coalition provided crucial support to help her daughter move to a new school while protecting her transgender identity through a legal name change.

“They answered questions and gave advice to staff at my daughter’s new school. As a result, my daughter’s transition, both social and educational, went very smoothly. She had her happiest and most successful year ever in 2015. She told me that she can now see a future for herself.”

The girl is not “out” at school because she fears bullying and was losing sleep because somebody “might want to kill me”, her mother said, but a meeting with the new principal and the Safe Schools Coalition had allayed that worry.

“If and when students at her school find out my daughter is transgender, the Safe Schools Coalition SA are going to come in and speak to her class so they understand what transgender means. My daughter is really happy about this.”

The Federal Government says the recent changes to Safe Schools and the end to funding will not lessen the supports available to children, as the program partners are all established organisations that already offered a range of services to children prior to Safe Schools.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the four-year program, initiated by the former Labor Government, had focused on developing resources so it would be “self-generating” in future years.

While Safe Schools resources are generally to be restricted to secondary schools, SA schools can continue to use materials in Year 7 on a case-by-case basis.