By Alizwa Dyeshana
Wynberg Girls High breaks the gender binary and embraces a culture of inclusivity by being the first single-sex school in South Africa to accommodate transgender learners.
Schools in the Western Cape have started to embrace change by implementing progressive gender-affirming policies. The initiative follows the recent draft of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation guidelines implemented by the Western Cape Department of Education. These ensure that schools are more inclusive and supportive of LGBTQI+ learners.
Wynberg Girls’ High School (WGHS) in particular is credited for being progressive when it comes to gender and sexual orientation as well as allowing pupils to form their own ‘Queers and Allies’ student committee The school has adopted an inclusive practice by opening its doors to gender-diverse students and creating a safer space for transgendered learners.
Transgender people have a gender identity that does not correspond to the sex given to them at birth. A growing number of South African youth indicate that their gender identities differ from their biological sex. Studies show that schools are often unsafe spaces for trans-learners which can result in them experiencing immense discrimination and being confronted with systematic challenges.
According to the South African Society of Psychiatrists, transgender youth are at high risk of mental illness with more than a third having a history of self-harming behaviours. In South Africa, suicide accounts for 1/10 teenage deaths, with a higher prevalence among transgender youth who lack essential support.
The lack of LGBTQI+ support policies from the National DBE necessitated the 2020 Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation guidelines drafted by the Western Cape DBE. The guidelines encourage schools to be gender-neutral in their policies and ensure the creation of safe spaces for gender-diverse learners. The guidelines highlight policies on dress code, unisex bathrooms and sports participation.
WGHS has aligned itself with these policies by creating its own gender identity and sexual orientation policy. Led by school governing body (SGB) member Amy Wilkinson, and head of counselling, Allison Eakin, the school started its transformation policy journey in 2016. As a teacher and alumni, Wilkinson explains that pre-2016, Wynberg was a non-friendly queer space and it was fundamental for the school to re-examine its policies on teachings, community and belonging.
Similar to the guidelines drafted by the Western Cape DBE, Wynberg’s policy on gender identity and sexual orientation accommodates gender-diverse bathrooms and gender-neutral uniforms which permits learners to wear any uniform that matches their gender identity.
Preferred or chosen names are used in classrooms as a way of establishing norms of respect among students and teachers The school also provides pronoun badges to learners as a way of normalising the non-assumption of gender identity. The provision of these badges is an initiative led by the ‘Queers and Allies’ student committee to reduce instances of misgendering within the school.
Cape Town co-ed school, Westerford High, has also adopted gender-inclusive policies which accept transgendered learners, and allow students of any gender to wear earrings and grow their hair as long as it is tied back. Pupils may also select a boy's or girl's uniform based on their comfort level. Westerford also has gender-neutral bathrooms. While transforming its policy, Wynberg Girls also revised its admission policy. It now accepts any female-identifying students. In 2019, it became the first all-girls public school in South Africa to welcome a transgender student.
“Wynberg saw no reason with the South African Constitution and Bill of Rights to deny a child a place, especially one that identifies as female,” says Eakin. Wynberg’s gender-diverse policy protects the educational rights of gender-diverse students and ensures that trans students are accommodated, comfortable and safe. One of the ways the school ensures this is through having regular orientations, workshops, and parent meetings conducted by professional speakers.
The aim of these regular orientations is to provide the school community with a basic understanding of what it means to be trans. Eakin says that inclusivity is one of the school’s core values instilled from a Grade 8 level. To ensure this, guest speakers are regularly invited to enhance values of respect, inclusivity, empathy, courage and diversity among students to create a family culture at Wynberg.
As Wynberg opened its doors to its first trans student, the newly implemented gender-inclusive policies provided the school with guidance on how to accommodate the new student and ensure that their safety and care needs were met.
“The meetings that we had with her (trans student) and her parents was really around what are you needing from us (as a school) and what can we provide for you, and how do we kind of walk this journey,” says Eakin.
The school drew on the expertise of UCT social worker specialist, Ron Addinall, to help address the issues faced by the trans community and to debunk myths surrounding their identities.
Eakin notes that it is often the parents or guardians who have an issue with the schools’ gender-affirming policies which results in pushback. Research shows that the parents’ attitudes toward inclusion policies result in a lack of support for trans-supportive interventions offered by schools. The lack of awareness among parents about gender inclusivity raises the risk of queerphobia and transphobia, potentially affecting the safety of gender-diverse students.
To combat this, Wynberg hosts regular parent meetings with psychiatrists to ensure guardians are educated about gender-diverse issues and are informed on the policies that protect them. The school also offers LGBTQI+ counselling for gender-diverse students who require a non-judgemental safe space to express their feelings without consequences.
As the school's clinical social worker, Eakin explains, the development goal of adolescence is to establish identity, and the school must provide pupils with the space and time to explore the journey of gender and sexual identity.
“They need a space where there is no judgement, where there's lots of empathy, where they can ask questions, where they can talk about really intimate stuff without people freaking out about it,” says Eakin.
The acceptance and accommodation of gender-diverse students at schools such as Wynberg and Westerford are not representative of all South African schools. A 2016 study by OUT LGBT Well-being showed that 56% of LGBTQI+ learners in South African schools experience discrimination based on sexuality or gender identity. There is a higher prevalence and increased vulnerability among queer pupils who attend township schools. Part of the issue is that township schools do not have the same level of access and affordability to support and implement progressive policies which leads to violence against gender-diverse students.
According to research by Professor Thabo Msibi, misinformation and a lack of awareness about homosexuality are major factors fueling homophobia in South African township schools. The bullying, discrimination and sexual misconduct presented by students and teachers in various incidents have led to the rise of suicide rates among LGBTQI+ learners. The re-education of teachers is suggested as the dominant way to combat homophobia within these schools Wynberg Girls takes a firm stance against forms of discrimination and ensures that anti-queerphobic policies are upheld.
“I think it comes down to the fact that our Constitution doesn't allow for this (discrimination), and our policies as a school don't allow for it,” says SGB member Amy Wilkinson. Wilkinson says that a big part of writing the policy was to ensure that preventative measures against homophobia, transphobia and queerphobia were protected in writing.
A teacher’s lack of knowledge and potential prejudice negatively impact the educational experiences of gender-diverse learners, which leads to detrimental physical and mental issues. Schools must address and eradicate discrimination and provide educational training that ensures teachers understand and approach LGBTQI+ matters with sensitivity.
Wynberg Girls handles teacher-related concerns by offering training workshops to educate staff on LGBTQI+ issues. This is a chance for educators to learn more about inclusion, which focuses on battling discriminatory attitudes, developing welcoming communities, and creating inclusive educational environments.
Wilkinson shares that Wynberg’s journey to policy transformation and embracing gender-diverse students has not been straightforward. There was an immense amount of rethinking and revision before the policy was finalised. And the pushback from parents, questioning from students and concerns from staff members didn’t make the process easy. But as a space of education, says Wilkinson, WGHS could not preach inclusivity as one of its core values without creating inclusive policies to accommodate gender-diverse students.
“We have an obligation to our gender-diverse students as teachers and as space of education,” says Wilkinson. “Children need to be educated. It’s their fundamental right, and the Constitution protects that right. If we are a South African school, we must uphold the Constitution… so I'd say we want to be on the right side of history” she says.
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