A Canadian school has fired a transgender teacher with prosthetic Z-cup breasts after pictures of her in men’s clothes showed that she doesn’t always wear the obvious clothes. Kayla Lemieux had said in the past that her breasts were real and caused by a medical problem.
The Halton District School Board (HDSB) says that Lemieux went on paid leave on February 28. She is still getting paid for her job at Oakville Trafalgar High School, though.
While not currently on an active assignment, the teacher remains employed with the HDSB,
board spokesperson Heather Francey said.
Kayla Lemieux says she has “gigantomastia” because of how big her breasts are.
Lemieux, who was in the news because of how she looks, has said that her large breasts are caused by a condition called gigantomastia. But she said she never got a formal diagnosis from a doctor. She has said that she is intersex, not transgender, which means she was born with both male and female sexual organs.
In 2021, Lemieux began changing from a man to a woman. In September, she was defended by the Halton District School Board, which said it would not answer questions about the case because it was a “personal matter.” The district says that criticizing or getting in the way of someone’s rights is against the Ontario Human Rights Code.
The HDSB recognizes the rights of students, staff, parents/guardians, and community members to equitable treatment without discrimination based upon gender identity and gender expression. Gender identity and gender expression are protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code,
the board said in a statement.
Pictures gave away Kayla Lemieux.
But Lemieux’s claims are being called into question after pictures of her dressed as a man without the prosthetic breasts and blonde wig came to light. This reportedly got her kicked out of school.
A source says that in the past, parents said that Lemieux “makes fun of women and school.” At a board meeting on March 1, a delegate named Lynn asked why the board had said before that telling Lemieux how to dress would be against the law. Lynn said, referring to a piece by Ontario employment lawyer Howard Levitt,
Every collective agreement permits the employer to require its employees to dress reasonably and even more so to require that a teacher of young people be a role model for civility and professionalism.
At the meeting, a father said,
The issue here is that the board is required by law to solicit the views of the school’s councils and to the best of my knowledge the board has not done so. Instead it has circulated a survey and circulating a survey is not the same as soliciting the views of the school’s councils.
Stephen Lecce, the Minister of Education for the province of Ontario, told the Toronto Star,
Halton parents are rightfully outraged at what’s taking place,
adding,
The welfare of kids should prevail in our judgements in school boards and in government.
