Hello everyone- I have a question for anyone who works in a public school, as a personal care assistant or any job that requires lots of exposure to people.
I'm about to get my name legally changed and begin full time life in Washington, either Marysville or Bellingham, and one reason why I'm extremely nervous is because most of my professional experience is paraprofessional work in an elementary school. Without getting too specific, several parents complained about someone who worked in the same classroom as me, who was in the very early stages of social transition. The complaints seem to generally be about parents not wanting their kids around a transsexual, on the grounds that they would not be "safe". The mechanics of it from that point out are very opaque (every involved party has a radically different story) but it seems like the agency she worked for came to a head with the local school district and now most of her work is on-site at the mental health treatment center that hired her, or therapeutic interventions that involve doing things out in the community, but is not allowed to work with clients in a public school. I even met one of the parents who complained and I worry that people in general are not comfortable with transsexuals around their children.
What does everyone else think about this? Can anyone offer an opinion about being trans and working in a public school, or with children?