A male high school teacher in Chino, Calif. showed up to teach classes last week dressed as a woman and calling himself Amanda without bothering to make any sort of school-wide announcement.
The shift completed the teacher’s odyssey of surgical and hormone-generated transition, reports NBC Los Angeles.
The taxpayer-funded teacher is now Amanda Swager.
Swager, 32, teaches chemistry at Chino High School amid the endless suburban sprawl of Southern California.
Swager noted that his gender reassignment probably wasn’t a surprise for anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to his appearance. He said he hopes parents aren’t angry with the school district for failing to notify them.
Many students did notice some kind of metamorphosis.
“He would have heels under his desk, and people would be like ‘Why do you have heels?'” student Viviana Vasquez told the local NBC station. “I was kind of shocked, but not really because it kind of felt like he was going toward that.”
Parents said they would have liked some kind of heads-up about Swager’s choice.
“On a Friday he was a man, on Monday he was woman,” one parent told the station.
“This probably brought or is going to bring disruption in the classroom because all these questions need to be answered,” another parent observed.
Vasquez, the student, said some kind of explanation would have been tactful in her opinion.
“It’s his life, but they should have at least said something about it so we could have known,” she said.
Porter Gilberg, executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Long Beach, told NBC Los Angeles he believes sex changes are about sex change recipients. Everyone should focus on them.
“The more support they have from friends loved ones and co-workers, the easier it’s going to be for them to live in the world,” Gilberg suggested.
Swager, whose name was Michael before he changed it to Amanda, said local school district officials have been tremendously supportive.
“I’ve got nothing but overwhelming support from the school district, the faculty here,” the teacher told NBC.
“We decided as a district, as a faculty, that it would do more harm than good to do a mass notification,” he added.
Swager suggested that he did “do individual notifications in classrooms where they knew what to expect.”
Swager’s Chino High webpage has been changed to add an image of Swager’s new feminine look. The page calls Swager “Ms. Swager.”
“I have been a teacher at the campus since 2008, and I am excited to have your student in my class,” the page reads. “Chemistry is a fun yet challenging subject, and I know that together with hard work and perserverance [sic] we will have a good year!”
Last academic year saw at least two American male teachers undergo surgeries and hormonal therapies to develop female features.
Around this time in 2014, a 56-year-old male teacher at Yosemite High School (also in California), returned from spring break as a newly-minted female. The 30-year veteran teacher, Gary Sconce, changed his name to Karen Adell Scot. Prior to his surgery-induced transition, Sconce had been married. He is a father. He said he told his family that he had felt like a man trapped in a woman’s body ever since he was a little kid. (RELATED: California Teacher Announces Sex Change To Occur Over Spring Break)
Meanwhile, also in 2014, transgender substitute teacher Laura Jane Klug — born Kurt Klug — ruffled feathers among parents in Lumberton, Texas. The parents expressed concerns that a transgender substitute teacher is less than ideal for a fifth-grade classroom. (RELATED: Texas Parents Balk When Transgender Teacher Shows Up To Teach Their Fifth Grade Children)
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