Gresham-Barlow School District agrees to pay transgender teacher

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Gresham-Barlow School District agrees to pay transgender teacher

http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2016/05/gresham_barlow_transgender_tea.html

By Casey Parks | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on May 20, 2016

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.