LILLE, France (AP) – About 100 teens gathered in Northern France on Friday to pay tribute to a transgender student who committed suicide this week after dealing with tensions with school officials for wearing skirts to class, a case that online outrage and national attention to the issue of gender identity.
The students held a sit-in and a moment of silence outside the entrance to Fenelon High School in Lille when the school began on Friday, expressing their anger and grief over the suicide of their classmate Fouad.
Fouad, 17, committed suicide on Tuesday at a shelter where she was staying, the school district said in a statement. According to the French policy for the protection of minors, she was identified by her first name only. A psychological support program has been set up for the students.
Classmates said Fouad had recently decided to publicly identify herself as a woman and was called to speak with a school official after wearing a skirt to class.
In a video that Fouad shared with friends and online, she overhears talking to the officer, who heatedly claims the teenager upset others at school. Fouad is in tears.
The suicide sparked calls for more concerted efforts in the French education system to address gender identity issues in classrooms and to protect transgender students.
French diversity minister Elisabeth Moreno tweeted that suicide in the transgender community is seven times higher than the average, adding, “We absolutely must fight transphobia everywhere.” Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer tweeted, “Fouad’s death challenges our society about everything we need to do to ensure everyone’s rights are respected.”
Fouad’s fellow students were upset that the school’s announcement of her death called Fouad a male student, and said some teachers refused to name Fouad as “them.” Fouad’s supporters hung signs around the school in support of trans rights that school officials had revoked, before later agreeing to re-post them amidst uproar.
Activist groups say several thousand people in France are transgender and are routinely abused or discriminated against despite regulations.
Arnaud Alessandrin, a sociologist at the University of Bordeaux who has written books on gender identity, said the French government is behind European neighbors on transgender rights, and he welcomed public outcry over Fouad’s death as a sign of growing awareness.
“A few years ago, people didn’t care” about the suicide of a trans boy, he said. Today they are indignant. People are starting to say it’s not normal. “
Alessandrin said the attitude change is due to high school students, “speaking out more. The education system can no longer ignore them. “
He said he is increasingly being approached by school nurses and counselors seeking advice on how to support trans students in changing their names, looks and other forms of gender expression “but there are still a significant number of institutions that do not want that. change. “
Fouad, who was of North African descent, was the victim of gender and racial discrimination both inside and outside the school, said a friend, Annabelle, who attended the protest on Friday. Annabelle did not want her last name published due to the sensitivity of the situation.
Fouad “suffered a deep pain that dates back a long time” and was exacerbated by the situation surrounding her gender identity at school, Annabelle told The Associated Press.
“We’re here to send a message of tolerance,” Annabelle said. “And to tell Fouad we’re here for her.”
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Charlton reported from Paris.