Canadian school defends trans teacher who wore giant breasts to class, prompting protest

ONTARIO, Canada (TND) — A school board in Canada is reportedly defending a now-infamous transgender teacher who went viral once videos and photos spread of her wearing giant prosthetic breasts in class.

Students at the Oakville Trafalgar High School in Oakville, Ontario allegedly snapped pictures and caught the teacher on video, and then shared the footage online.

One video shows the transgender teacher, with long blonde hair, short tight pants and a long-sleeved black and white striped shirt, operating a table saw to cut some wood.

One instance of the video on Twitter already has over 827,000 views.

According to some, a certain set of features make the teacher appear "clownish" and "sexist."

It's clownish," Sunira Chaudhrym an employment lawyer at Worklylaw.com told the Toronto Sun. "It seems sexist to me, because of the exaggerated nature of these breasts with nipples protruding. I think a lot of young women at the school wouldn’t just feel uncomfortable, they’d feel mocked."

Chaudhrym added that, if a non-transgender woman teacher appeared in the exact same way as the transgender teacher, they'd likely be reprimanded.

The presentation of the transgender teacher, caught on video and in other photos, is "beyond the scope of what any reasonable employer would expect," Chaudhrym reportedly said.

Nobody would be surprised to see an employer stepping in and saying, ‘We need you as a teacher to come to school and dress professionally," the employment lawyer told the Toronto Sun.

However, it seems that the Halton District School Board is standing behind the transgender teacher at Oakville High. HDSB Chair Margo Shuttleworth told the Toronto Sun that protecting their employees' "gender rights" is "the stance the school board is taking and they are standing behind the teacher."

The transgender teacher reportedly previously identified as a man while working at the school as soon as a year ago, but now identifies as a woman. The school board claims the transgender teacher is "extremely effective," and Shuttleworth even claimed that "all the kids really love being in the class," according to the Toronto Sun.

Yet the videos and photos of the transgender teacher quickly spread online and ignited a fierce wave of backlash. The school board acknowledges this, saying it has received some comments and calls on the matter already.

There will be protesters and the anti-protesters," Shuttleworth told the Toronto Sun. “I do know there have been phone calls made to the school that haven’t been the most pleasant in nature."

Shuttleworth added that the school board wants to make sure that the teacher is "protected" and that "everybody remains safe" despite any possible protests or backlash. So far, the school board has refused to name the teacher in question, yet acknowledged their existence and that they are a teacher at Oakville High.

Students have already expressed some concern over the transgender teacher online, with one allegedly saying on Twitter alongside pictures and videos that "the kids here most definitely don’t think it’s normal but realistically we can’t say anything. Last year, the teacher was a man. I don’t think the school can fire him."

In an op-ed for the Toronto Sun, editor Anthony Furey said that students and parents are "right to be concerned.”

The situation just isn’t normal and shouldn’t be allowed to continue,” Furey wrote. "This has nothing to do with something like transgender rights... [it] goes beyond an incident of ‘wokeness’ or ‘political correctness.'"

The story has gone viral not because the teacher identifies as trans. It’s gone viral because everyone knows it’s completely inappropriate for someone to present themselves this way in a professional environment," Furey added.

The Halton District School Board hasn't said much else regarding the transgender teacher or any actions being taken, only that its a "personnel matter" and that some people online have incorrectly identified the teacher as another educator at the school named Stephen Hanna.

"While we cannot confirm the identity of the individual in the photos/videos/radio segments, we can confirm that the individual is not Stephen Hanna," the school board said in a statement, according to CBC News. "Stephen Hanna is a staff member of the Halton District School Board who is an entirely separate individual and is completely unrelated to this matter."