VANCOUVER, December 19, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite objections of numerous parents, the Vancouver Public School Board has permitted a male teacher, who has undergone surgical mutilation in order to appear female, to continue to teach at the same school. John Henderson Elementary School’s grade 5 teacher Jack Johnston is now referring to himself as Jenna Stuart. The school’s December 13 newsletter explained the situation and noted that “Where appropriate, staff will be explaining the concept of transgender to students on Monday, December 16 at 9:30 a.m.” Spokesmen for the Vancouver School Board seemed pleased with the situation as a learning opportunity and dismissed parental concerns. Adrienne Montani of the Vancouver School Board was quoted in CTV News coverage as saying the situation was an opportunity “To create a caring community. That’s what we want to model for all of our students, is that we are a caring and accepting community.” The board’s Deborah Carty said, “There have been some parents who are concerned but not overwhelmingly so. This is a very large school and it has been a very low number of concerns so far.”“We’re telling [the students] that it is a medical condition,” said principal Karen Bunting, “that her identity has been changed medically and legally’.
To express concerns to the board: General Information [email protected] Human Resources: [email protected]
See the Vancouver Sun and CTV coverage as well as the school newsletter: https://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=%7BC63F71D5-F78B-40EB-8572-95A5F45B56AC%7D https://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1040092783417_13///?hub=Canada https://henderson.vsb.bc.ca/dec13news.htm