I fully understand why the school is keeping quiet about it. As curious as I am to see how it plays out, it really isn’t any of our business.
However, I’m surprised that none of the 1000+ high school students have said anything . Either to confirm or deny part(s) or all of the story. Anything.
The only scenario I can think of in which that many kids would keep quiet is if there was the threat of punishment. But, even then, surely some of them would talk to the media anonymously.
That is reason to use this specific article as Pit fodder? Nothing at all to do with that the story presents the individual as a trans individual?
Sorry but that response is completely disingenuous. It is transparent bullshit.
Insofar as that goes, if the story as presented is both true and the whole story, yes, that behavior, by anyone, would be, IMHO, worse than wildly highly inappropriate, it would make me consider that that the person, cis or trans, was in the midst of a major mental health or neurological crisis. It is not normal behavior for a trans individual; it is not normal behavior for a cis individual. It is disturbed behavior. If the individual doing it is not some in the midst of a mental health or neurological crisis, then they are doing it very aware that it is abnormal behavior that will call attention to themself, and the only reason a person would that is to make statement. The only statement that makes sense is a transphobic one: this is in that case not dressing as a caricature of a woman but as a hateful caricature of a trans woman.
Nothing to see here in those cases really. Boring pit.
But no, no way in heck someone would open a thread to pit a stranger having a mental health crisis who just happens to be identified in the article as trans.
Agreed. It is not the extraordinary evidence the extraordinary claims of the article would require. Exactly the point.
Rickjay also failed to confirm or deny the giant visible nipples, which at least some people thought were photoshopped in. Even though I asked him explicitly. And he was weird about it. He didn’t say, “I don’t know”, he just said “the story is true as reported”, and gave links to articles that didn’t include any photos showing nipples.
I get that he was frustrated with people not trusting him, and confusing the star and the sun, but seeing as he bothered to respond to me at all, it seems like it would have been an easy point to answer. And “I don’t know” is almost always a valid answer.
here is the exchange I am referring to, above
Admittedly, I was being hostile, in that last point. But what a strange reply to a rather explicit, straightforward question. IMHO.
I can think of lots of stories of teachers doing something highly inappropriate, I can cite them, too. What is your point in singling out this one?
Do you start a pit thread when you read a story like this?
If not, then your concern is not about teachers acting inappropriately, it’s something about this teacher.
What extraordinary claims did the article in the OP make that go beyond:
A shop teacher at the school
is transitioning (or transitioned) from male to female
is found wearing outrageous clothing / prosthetics during class
the school is supporting the teacher
Because I just read it again, and that’s all the article says, at least in terms of facts about the scenario. None of that is extraordinary.
I am, however, open to the idea that I’m a moron who needs remedial work in reading comprehension.
Why do you say that? I think it’s completely on point for what you asked.
Q - So, you are claiming personal knowledge that
A - No, I am stating I have spoken to trustworthy individuals who have personal knowledge that
Q - A trans woman of that name teaches shop in the school
Someone took a video of her wearing cartoonish breasts
Her clothes as worn that day allow the outlines of enormous tits to show
A - the pictures and video are of a teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School who dresses in this manner and identifies as a trans woman.
Q - But you have absolutely no clue what the context is, it what’s actually going on.
A - yes, I don’t know the “context,” I suppose, beyond what’s been reported in the news.
Glad to hear it. Self acceptance is important.
The complete picture is of course more than the sum of the parts. Most non-morons understand that.
A whole story being a person transitioning to female choosing to present themself like that in their nonsectarian work workplace is an outrageously extraordinary claim that requires similarly extraordinary evidence of support. No question there are those with hateful beliefs of transgender individuals who would not find that to be an extraordinary claim. That is a them problem.
Exactly. As I said earlier, I’ve never known, or heard of, a transwoman who wore anything like the outfit in those pictures. I’ve known plenty of cisdudes who have. The claim that the picture is of a teacher who sincerely self-identifies as a transwoman, and that the outfit is an aspect of her gender expression rather than some sort of protest, is an extraordinary claim. Nobody has come anywhere close to supporting it, except for Rickjay with his claim that the teacher is trans accompanied by a caveat that we must not question this identification.
What would the teacher be protesting?
As mentioned before:
That to me is NOT an extraordinary claim.
BTW, damn autocorrect. My post above should be “non sex work workplace” not “nonsectarian” workplace. 
I mean, pure speculation, but in a vacuum, my assumption is that there is a transgender teacher at this school, and the shop teacher put on this outfit to mock her.
Then plays the game of, “If she (well, it’s likely the shop teacher deliberately misgendered her and called her ‘he’) can wear a wig and false breasts, why can’t I?”
As I said, that’s entirely speculation, but it fits the facts far better than any other explanations that I’ve seen. Nothing that @RickJay or others have said changes that.
I kinda doubt we will hear much more about this, as it is really a private matter between the school and their staff, and only really became public because transphobes wanted to make it into a thing.
With the way gender is now, it is pretty much meaningless in terms of how an individual expresses their gender. There are trans women who haven’t made any biological changes, have full beards and wear men’s-style business suits. There are cis-women who have augmented breasts as big as beach balls. A statement like “A woman wouldn’t do blahblahblah” is really a reflection of gender bias of the person making the statement or from society in general. A woman is a person who identifies as a woman. That’s it. Whether that person wears giant breasts or not is independent of their personal gender identification.
Certainly we can say that wearing giant prosthetic breasts is not typical for women, but that is speaking about women in general. Most women wouldn’t augment their breasts to be as big as beach balls, but there are some women who do so. They aren’t necessarily doing it as a joke, political statement, or breakdown in their mental health. They just want very large breasts. So here it doesn’t seem that impossible that a trans woman might also want to have similar-sized breasts and is doing so with prosthetics rather than augmentation. This could just be how she prefers her body to be.
FWIW I associate the desire for freakishly large breasts with being a sex worker, specifically in porn, or with a serious mental illness state. It is not typical for women in general, cis or trans, and other than for sex work, even those who desire freakishly large breasts do not go out of their way to create freakishly prominent nipples and to wear clothes in non sex work venues that display those nipples.
It is not impossible but it is a much much more extraordinary claim than other explanations offered.
The rules around misgendering seem quite strict. I don’t know how we could discuss this possibility openly without breaking them, which might be why RickJay is reluctant to question this teacher’s identification.
How does the schools public response of support fit into this?
How does the naming of Kayla Lemieux standing uncorrected by the district, when they specifically corrected the naming of Stephen Hanna fit into this?
How is it that not a single person from the community itself has suggested that this is the real situation?
How is it that district chair Shuttleworth was quoted specifically as saying they are working to ensure this teacher’s safety and that the teacher is a beloved and effective shop teacher, when this teacher is actually just publicly mocking another teacher in a magnificently offensive and unprofessional manner?
These are facts that have been brought up here, and none of them fit nicely into your speculated situation.
The rules against misgendering people does not extend to questioning if someone in a news story actually identifies as trans or not.
I think RickJay has stated that he cannot explain what the teacher’s colleagues believe is happening because HE DOES NOT KNOW, and will not speculate. I don’t think it’s fair to criticize someone for refusing to guess what someone else is thinking.
Ah, I didn’t realise that. Thanks for the clarification.
I don’t see how the school’s response is in conflict, at all.
Because the person in question was not Stephen Hanna. The name of the person actually depicted in the photo, and the name of the transgender teacher are in fact an element of confusion that has not been cleared up by the district or the media.
Not a single person from the community has spoken on the matter either way.
I had a gym teacher in school who was “beloved and effective”, and also a massive homophobe and transphobe. He would regularly use homophobic and transphobic slurs as a “motivational” tool.
I don’t see that as a contradiction at all.
I don’t see how anything you brought up contradicts my speculation. Is your speculation that this is photo is of a transwoman who wears this every day as her regular attire? There’s a whole lot there that doesn’t fit.