Keywords:
transgender youth, school, bullying, negative perceptions, leaving school, rural, arts
transgender youth, school, bullying, negative perceptions, leaving school, rural, arts
Transcript
Tara: The youth that you worked with- did they ever talk about schooling or their experiences at school? Did they want to go back to school? Did they talk about why they left school?
Alec: Um, yah. I think pretty well they all had a horrible experience at school from what I could gather.
Tara: Yah.
Alec: Very bad experience in school. Bullying. Being, uh, perceived as stupid somehow. ‘Cause some of them are very shy so they were pegged as slow learners, stuff like that. Um, most of them had to leave home because of being trans. Some of them lived in other provinces in rural areas, so they didn’t get treated very well.
Tara: No.
Alec: So yah, a lot of them left school before they graduated. Didn’t finish school, and wanted to go back to school. Definitely wanted to go back to school and get more education.
Tara: Right.
Alec: Yah, more of a, um, yah. More of a background in their education so they could get jobs, which is a situation a lot of trans people have. They get bullied in school, they leave school. They can’t get good jobs because they don’t have the training or the education so yah, so um, also they were also very artistic.
Tara: Yes.
Alec: Yah, all of them were very proud of being artistic, wanted to be artists, dancers, communicators, storytellers, they are very into that, which is really cool. Which is why they were so great doing the play.
Tara: The youth that you worked with- did they ever talk about schooling or their experiences at school? Did they want to go back to school? Did they talk about why they left school?
Alec: Um, yah. I think pretty well they all had a horrible experience at school from what I could gather.
Tara: Yah.
Alec: Very bad experience in school. Bullying. Being, uh, perceived as stupid somehow. ‘Cause some of them are very shy so they were pegged as slow learners, stuff like that. Um, most of them had to leave home because of being trans. Some of them lived in other provinces in rural areas, so they didn’t get treated very well.
Tara: No.
Alec: So yah, a lot of them left school before they graduated. Didn’t finish school, and wanted to go back to school. Definitely wanted to go back to school and get more education.
Tara: Right.
Alec: Yah, more of a, um, yah. More of a background in their education so they could get jobs, which is a situation a lot of trans people have. They get bullied in school, they leave school. They can’t get good jobs because they don’t have the training or the education so yah, so um, also they were also very artistic.
Tara: Yes.
Alec: Yah, all of them were very proud of being artistic, wanted to be artists, dancers, communicators, storytellers, they are very into that, which is really cool. Which is why they were so great doing the play.