From: celeste%express@freedom.msfc.nasa.gov (Celeste)
Subject: Boy Wants to Be Girl
Followup-To: soc.women
Organization: Have Spacesuit will Travel
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 18:01:03 GMT

Article from
The Atlanta Journal & The Atlanta Constitution
of Saturday, Oct. 10, 1992 page B1

Teenage missing school because hes not allowed to dress as a girl

By Pat Burson
STAFF WRITER

A Tri-Cities High School senior is fighting for his choice "to 
be a girl" has remained away from school for nearly three weeks 
because of an impasse with Fulton County school officials, who 
have ruled that he cannot come to school anymore dressed as a 
girl.

Principal Hershel Robinson recently informed Nicholas Ricks, 17, 
who has been cross-dressing since last spring and considers 
himself a pre-operative transsexual, that he "would have to dress 
appropriately until the medical and legal documentation came in to 
state he was a girl."

Dr. Hershel Robinson said provisions have been made for Nicholas 
to use restrooms in the administrative suite and to use the 
coaches office to change if he takes physical education. However, 
the principal said, the student will be allowed to dress as a 
female only if he has the medical and legal documentation.

Meanwhile, Nicholass mother, Kathleen Baber, is irate with Dr. 
Robinson and other school officials for not responding to her 
pleas for help last spring, when she first discovered her son was 
dressing as a girl at school.

She is still distraught. "Its like watching your son die, and 
nobody will help you," she said, crying.

Nicholas says he wants the freedom to express himself as a 
female, especially now that he is undergoing hormone therapy, 
altering his physique and voice.

"I feel just like a girl," he said during an interview Friday at 
his familys home. "If Im not going to be a boy for my mom, Im 
not going to be a boy for anybody else, and Im sure not going to 
be a boy for the public school system."

He considers himself a transsexual because he "psychologically 
identifies with opposite sex," he explained, citing the definition 
in a dictionary.

"Thats me. Im making that choice," he said. "Right now, Im a 
boy. Im choosing to be a girl."

Nicholas said he started altering his appearance last spring, 
occasionally coming to school in makeup and feminine attire. "I 
dress like the dress code is in the book for the girls," he said.

He said the schools dress code should be rewritten. "I want 
them to say a boy can wear a dress," he said. "I want something to 
be done for other students like me," he said, suggesting that 
other students are hiding their sexual identities.

Nicholas now uses a female name and a new surname, but asked 
that this new identity not be disclosed. He said that he plans to 
have a sex-change operation in a few years.

Ms. Baber acknowledges that part of her anger at the school is 
from frustration over her sons behavior. "I want to beat them up 
for not helping me, [but] I know its not their fault."

School officials and Nicholas say they have discussed the 
possibility of the his going to an alternative school in the 
district for students that have difficulty in traditional school 
settings. But Ms. Baber, whose permission is required for such a 
transfer, is worried about what might happen there, and said she 
wants reassurance from school officials.

School spokeswomen Elizabeth Ackerman said this case is unique, 
but a sign of the times. "I think its the beginning of what we 
will see more of in schools."

Dallas Denny, with the Atlanta-based American Educational Gender 
Information Service Inc. (AEGIS), a national information publisher 
and referral service, suggested that the family seek counseling 
and include school officials so that a compromise might be struck.

Intentionally using the femine pronoun, Ms. Denny said of 
Nicholas, "Shes entitled to an education, and she shouldnt have 
to be a boy to get it."

Local lawyers say the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students 
do not have unlimited rights in public schools.

"I think it is a hard case," said Georgia State University law 
professor Stephen Wermiel. "I think the courts that have the best 
argument are those that say the burden is on school officials to 
demonstrate that their codes are reasonable. In this case, if they 
are willing to accommodate some of the students privacy 
interests, it doesnt make sense to me to prohibit him from 
dressing as he pleases within the dress code limits."

Michael Huptman, past president of the Georgia chapter of the 
American Civil Liberties Union, said, "He can probably get 
something from his physician that he is going thought the process 
and add that at this point in time, except for the surgical 
procedure, he is female. Then I think the school will have a hard 
time saying he cant dress as a woman, especially if the physician 
says its best for his mental and physical health."



"I claim that rape exist any time sexual intercourse occurs when it has not
be initiated by the women, out of own genuine affection and desire."
 -- Robin Morgan, current editor of Ms. Magazine, in 1974