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Changing names at school

Discussion in 'Gender Identity and Expression' started by Snoww, Jul 14, 2016.

  1. Snoww

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    Can you actually ask the teachers to call you a certain name or will they not accept because it isn't your birth name? Has anyone here tried this before? How did it go?

    thx for answering ^^
     
  2. Invidia

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    You can tell them, certainly. Tell the people you want to know. If you want the whole class to know and all the teachers, then tell them; also tell them about pronouns. If there's a roll call outside of your familiar class or so, they're likely to use your birth name, which may suck but I guess that's just how it is. But you can definitely tell people you see on a more regular basis if you want them to call you by another name.
    Some teachers might be a pain for all I know. For example, they might ask to talk to your parents first or something. Have you talked to your parents? Are you out to them?
     
  3. Aberrance

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    I went to my college nurse who then emailed all my teachers about my preferred name, as did my studrnt progress manager. My college was incredibly acknowledging of trans students and did what they could to accommodate. I'd either go to a teacher or maybe guidance counselor/head of year and ask if they could email your teachers explaining your situation and preferred name/pronouns. Or email them yourself if you feel you're able to. Also, specifically ask if you can have your preferred name on the register and things, obviously legal name would need to be used on certain documents but sometimes they will write down a preferred name next to it on the system. If you don't ask you don't get, eh.
     
  4. Snoww

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    thank you for taking the time to answer! Only my mom knows about my name and pronouns, my dad doesn't and he isn't acceptant of it either ( he finds it weird that I wear masculine clothing and he doesn't want me to get my hair cut short but I'm still doing it cx ) so if I was to tell my teachers and they would want to contact my parents, my dad would be informed and I would have to come out. Also, he once asked me what name I would have rather than my birth name and I told him the current name I'm using ( which is masculine ) and he didn't really have a good reaction to it. But I think I'll still try it out.
     
  5. darkcomesoon

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    My understanding is that it depends on the school's policies. I've heard stories of schools that refuse to call students by any name that isn't clearly a nickname of their given name without parents' permission, and I've heard stories of people who have had no issue getting teachers to call them by a different name. Try talking to a guidance counselor. They can inform you of the school's policies, and might help you come out to your teachers (and help get them to cooperate if they're resistant to the name change).
     
  6. Lacybi

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    I told my form tutor - well I wrote it down as I couldn't say it out loud - and she told the guidance consellor - after asking my permission - who then took me into her office and talked to me about my gender and name and pronouns. She said that changing my name in the school system would be easy and before the new year started she would personally tell my teachers about my name and pronouns. I said I wasn't sure so she gave me the number of her office and said that I could ring if I changed my mind. She also said that I could pop into her office any time I needed to. I actually decided the other day not to go ahead and change my name yet but I'm glad I know I CAN if I wanted to.

    I suppose talking to individual teavhers would work for class as well; most of my teachers call the students the name everyone calls them, eg JJ in my class is called by the teachers JJ even though it says James on the register. I know it's not exactly the same, but from what I've seen most teachers are accommodating.
     
  7. RainbowGreen

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    That's so freaking awesome! :grin:

    At my school, they refused to call me by any name other than my birth name (even if the teachers gave nicknames to plenty of students). Some teachers ended up seeing how uncomfortable I was, so they simply disobeyed and called me by my new name. Only one teacher was a real douche about it.

    Otherwise, they said it would be ''illegal'' to call me something other than my then legal name (which is complete bullshit). I had to get a specialist's letter to make them finally listen to me. If I didn't have friends in the year book committee, I would also have ended up having my birth name in it as well, despite clearly saying that I wanted to be removed from it if they could not be decent enough to refer to me correctly.

    I really hope your school is not as shitty as my highschool was towards this.
     
  8. GayPugs

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    I'm homeschooled but I go to a few classes every so often (but only ones I want to go to) and I recently asked my friends (who also happen to be my yoga teacher and writing teacher) to call me my preferred name, Alex. And they happily obliged! I'm not sure for school situations but there's no shame in asking.
     
  9. YuriBunny

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    That's ridiculous! :eusa_doh:
     
  10. Daydreamer1

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    You can reach out to your guidance counselor to see if anything can be done