School accused of pushing girl to become transgender

Chinese International School has been accused of encouraging a girl to transition to a transgender male while allegedly hiding it from her parents for months on the grounds of "safeguarding her rights."

The incident happened in the wake of LGBTQ - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning - awareness in Hong Kong, with the latest landmark ruling from the Court of Final Appeal confirming transgender citizens who have not fully undergone the medical transition have the right to amend their gender marking on their HK ID cards.

It is understood the CIS girl's parents said their daughter, in her early teens, was going through puberty and went to the North Point school's counselor because she felt uncomfortable about things.

The counselor told her she suffered from gender dysphoria and the solution was for her to turn into a male. She was also given information from the online forum Reddit.

Without alerting the parents, the CIS called the girl by a male name at school but referred to her female name in front of her mother and father on parents' evenings. The girl eventually broke the news to her parents and her father managed to "turn it all around" for his daughter to realize she did not suffer from gender dysphoria or want to become a transgender.

The angry parents moved their daughter to Kellett International School after they saw it was organizing a "body affirmation day."

The parents said the CIS counselor involved was fired and that they lodged a complaint to the Education Bureau.

The bureau said it has no record of the complaint.

The school said repeatedly the officer responsible was not in the office.

The CIS website says the school has a child-protection program with three designated officers and seven counselors ready to help primary and secondary students.

The handling of the CIS girl's case raised eyebrows, with education officials saying schools must refer such cases for professional assessment and alert parents before anything else.

Education sector legislator Tang Fei, who had been a principal in a secondary school, said teachers and counselors are not empowered to diagnose students with mental or gender issues, though they could be involved after advice from social workers or educational psychologists.

A public secondary school teacher said there must be a letter of parental consent before a school can give special treatment to a student.

An education psychologist said she had come across one to two cases of sexuality-related problems, which she referred to an NGO for assessment after acquiring the parents' consent.

Diane Lo Ting-yan, who has worked as a school-based educational psychologist, said it takes at least six months before a student can see a psychiatrist for a gender dysphoria diagnosis.

Lo said since educational psychologists specialize in handling students' mental and behavioral issues she has referred some cases of sexuality-related problems to Project Touch run by The Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association, which targets LGBTQ teens and their parents.

"Even if an educational psychologist is professional enough to handle students' gender-related problems, students or even their parents will need to sign a consent form before seeing the psychologist," Lo added.

The president of the Hong Kong Mental Wellness Association, psychiatrist May Lam Mei-ling, said such cases should be referred to psychiatrists for checks and assessments.

"We won't suddenly suggest someone become trans," she said. "Assessments are needed and it will take years of counseling if they really want to undergo a gender-affirming surgery."

On The Standard's inquiry on authorities' guidelines for schools on gender-related matters, the Education Bureau said only school social workers and teachers should collaborate to identify and support students in need at an early stage while maintaining close contact with parents to keep them well informed about a child's situation and progress.

But keywords such as "gender" and "sexuality" were not mentioned in a general reply from the bureau.

Official guidelines on gender-related matters are also absent from the bureau's school administration guide, designed for all subsidized schools to follow.

As stated in the document, when students encounter sexuality-related problems teachers should work closely with student guidance personnel or school social workers and provide counseling.

And depending on the nature of a case and its seriousness, student guidance personnel or school social workers should refer students to expert organizations or departments for appropriate services and closely monitor the case through multidisciplinary collaboration.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com