A fifth-grade teacher at an Oregon elementary school said ‘they’ was harassed at work and that ‘they’ was referred to by the wrong pronoun. The school district paid ‘them’ $60,000 to compensate for any harassment ‘they’ may have received.
Leo Soell was born a woman, but ‘they’ don’t want you to call ‘them’ a he or a she. Soell claims to be “transmasculine” and “genderqueer,” meaning ‘they’ is neither male nor female. Soell has been publicly gender-neutral since mid-2015.
‘They’ is a breast cancer survivor. After getting both breasts amputated in 2014, ‘they’ now has a more masculine appearance.
‘They’ is gender-neutral, and ‘they’ doesn’t want any more trouble from teachers and students.
Soell said some teachers have taken advantage of the school’s gender-neutral bathroom so that ‘they’ ends up waiting over 30 minutes to use it. Another incident involved someone smearing Vaseline on ‘their’ cabinets.
The school’s first investigation into the harassment found no proof, but it agreed to refer to Soell as ‘they.’
After Soell applied more pressure with an attorney and an official complaint, the school forked over $60,000.
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