A transgender boy is being bullied in a Montgomery County middle school, and the school is doing little to stop it, his mother says.
The 12-year-old began transitioning in October, and that’s when he says he started hearing slurs and getting ugly comments at Silver Creek Middle School.
“They think I’m a sin,” he said. “They think my life, being who I am, is a sin.”
“They call me slurs, they ask what my gender is, they ask stuff about my body that I’m not comfortable with, and just all sorts of questions that are not appropriate to ask someone,” he said. “I think they forget that I’m a person.”
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Christina Celenza says her son told her the slurs increased on a day last month when some students observed a day of silence to promote awareness of LGBTQ youth, but when she complained to school administrators about it, she felt they did not grasp the seriousness of it.
“We need to be talking to our kids about this hate, and if the parents don’t know that it’s going on and the school keeps sweeping it under the rug, denying that it happened or saying without actual witnesses they won’t address it,” she said.
Celenza says when swastikas were found inside the school recently, a letter went home to parents and an assembly was held.
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“I want to see a letter go out to the parents explaining the anti-LGBTQ slurs that are very prevalent,” Celenza said.
She wants to see a town hall involving all students so they can be educated about hate speech and practicing inclusivity.
The school system released a statement that reads, in part, “MCPS has recently improved its hate bias reporting form specific to incidents involving discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender or gender identity, and sexual orientation. All hate and bias reported incidents are investigated and disciplinary action is taken in alignment with the MCPS student code of conduct.”
