Gresham-Barlow School District agrees to pay transgender teacher, add gender-neutral bathrooms after complaint
by Casey Parks, from the Oregonian. The article is here, with photos and a video. Full article is copied below so you don’t have to read the comments unless you want to!
The Gresham-Barlow School District has agreed to pay $60,000 and make sweeping changes across its nearly two dozen campuses after a transgender elementary school teacher complained of more than a year of harassment from coworkers.
Leo Soell, a fifth-grade teacher at Hall Elementary School, came out as transgender last spring after surviving breast cancer.
The harassment started soon after, Soell said in a complaint submitted to district officials, and continued even after the school hosted an hourlong training on transgender issues.
Soell identifies as neither male nor female and uses the pronoun they instead of he or she. But, Soell wrote, coworkers continuously called Soell "she," "lady" or "Miss Soell." Someone smeared Vaseline on Soell's cabinets, the complaint said, and another yelled insults in the school hallway. Others conspired to prevent Soell from using the school's lone gender-neutral bathroom, the complaint said.
A district investigation, which officials have declined to release, found no proof of harassment.
But Gresham-Barlow officials agreed to a settlement this month that compensates Soell for emotional damages. District leaders also agreed to add gender-neutral bathrooms to all schools, create clear policies about transgender teachers and host mandatory trainings for all Gresham principals, as well as Hall staff.
Soell's case illustrates a gap in the major civil rights fight of the moment: Even as the Oregon and federal departments of education have directed schools to better accommodate transgender students, no such guidelines exist for transgender teachers.
At Gresham, the complaint alleges, that lack of clarity left Soell and coworkers frustrated and distracted from teaching.
"I actually feel safe now," Soell said in an interview after the settlement. "There will always be people who push the boundaries, but I'm not worried about them anymore because I know that my district supports me."
In a statement Thursday, district officials said they were "pleased" and said "the provisions of this agreement resolve concerns, enable us to put this issue to rest and allow the district to move forward."
Soell started teaching at Hall in 2013. That same year, Soell told friends and family that Soell did not identify as a woman or a man.
Initially Soell didn't come out at work. Oregon teachers work their first three years on yearlong probationary contracts, so Soell decided to wait for job security before telling administrators.
Then, in November 2014, doctors diagnosed Soell with breast cancer. Surgeons removed Soell's breasts and performed reconstructive "top surgery" to give Soell a masculine-appearing chest. After chemotherapy, Soell decided to no longer live in hiding.
Soell's name was changed legally to "Leo," and Gresham-Barlow administrators were asked to update district records.
Other school districts, including Reynolds and West Linn, have had teachers come out as transgender with little or no trouble. Portland Public Schools has multiple transgender teachers and a policy that allows employees to be out as transgender or gay.
Gresham didn't have a clear policy when Soell returned from medical leave in May 2015. Instead, according to teachers, the then-principal told them not to announce Soell's name change or refer to Soell as "they" in front of students.
They, them and their pronouns
Some transgender people use "they, them and their" pronouns. Leo Seoll, a social justice advocate and transgender person talks about their choice of pronouns.
If kids asked whether Soell was a boy or a girl, district leaders told Soell to respond, "We all have private lives, and it would not be appropriate to talk about our private lives during the school day." A district spokeswoman last year said administrators were worried about "age appropriateness."
Soell said coworkers responded by intentionally calling Soell "lady" or "Miss Soell."
"Another teacher yelled at me openly in the school hallway, saying that my gender is a 'belief system' that I do not have the right to make other people follow and that God is on her side," Soell said in a complaint, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Soell and the teachers union filed a grievance last school year. Over the summer, union representatives negotiated a deal that allowed Soell to go by "they" at school.
Last September, district leaders also hired nonprofit TransActive Gender Center to lead a training for Hall staff.
Still, Soell said, the harassment continued through last fall. Soell said a group of seven teachers and educational assistants used the wrong pronouns intentionally in front of parents and students.
When a student corrected one staff member who called Soell "she," the teacher "berated" the student and told the student not to correct her, Soell's complaint said.
Others blocked Soell from using the bathroom, the complaint said. Hall Elementary had only one gender-neutral restroom. In previous school years, Soell said, no teachers used it.
After Soell began using it, half a dozen non-transgender teachers also started using that restroom, forcing Soell to wait as long as 30 minutes.
In November, Gresham-Barlow sent Soell a letter saying it had investigated Soell's claims and found no proof of harassment. The district declined to share details of the investigation with Soell or The Oregonian/OregonLive.
So Soell hired an attorney.
Jennifer Middleton, whose team of lawyers helped win the right for Oregon same-sex couples to marry, told district leaders Soell intended to file a Bureau of Labor and Industries complaint.
Though the Oregon Department of Education lacks official policies for transgender employees, the labor bureau protects all state employees from discrimination on the basis of sex or sexual orientation.
Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian has ruled in favor of marginalized groups with hefty fines over the past few years. In 2015, Avakian awarded $135,000 to a lesbian couple denied a wedding cake. In 2013, Avakian ordered a North Portland bar owner to pay $400,000 to a group of transgender and cross-dressing patrons he asked not to return.
"When we made clear that we were going forward with the complaint, they said, 'Let's try and settle,'" Middleton said.
While the two sides met with a federal judge, Hall Elementary leaders converted all of the school's staff bathrooms to gender-neutral facilities.
As part of the settlement, district leaders agreed to build gender-neutral restrooms at all Gresham-Barlow schools within three years. The district also agreed to pay Soell $60,000 for attorney fees and emotional distress. That amount also covers money Soell spent out-of-pocket for cancer-related expenses that the district's health insurance rejected because Soell is transgender.
The greater victory, Soell said, will affect teachers across Gresham. District leaders agreed to develop official guidelines about transgender staff by August. Those guidelines, inspired by similar policies in Portland and Eugene, will address names and pronouns, as well as bathroom access for transgender employees.
In the meantime, Hall Principal Heidi Lasher emailed all teachers and staff reminding them that the district's anti-bullying policies refer to teachers, too.
"These policies require that all staff address transgender or gender non-conforming employees with their correct name and pronouns," the principal wrote. "If you are found to be in violation of these policies, you will be subject to discipline up to and including dismissal."
Since then, Soell said no teachers have called them "she" or "Miss Soell."
"Everyone feels better when they know what the boundary is," Soell said. "And there was just no line before."
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