Kayla Lemieux, a trans teacher in Ontario, Canada, who made international headlines for teaching shop class while wearing massive prosthetic breasts, is now dressing as a man with glasses and stubble ahead of the coming school year.
The images, obtained first by the Daily Mail, show Lemieux arriving at Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School in Hamilton, about an hour outside of Toronto, in a completely different wardrobe.
The educator initially insisted he suffered from gigantomachia, a medical condition, and was born intersex. Lemieux’s then-employer, Halton District School Board (HDSB), came under fire from parents and community members for failing to proactively address the controversy.
Notably, Lemieux’s prosthesis didn’t break any school policies at the time because the district simply lacked a professional dress code. The loophole led director of educator Curtis Ennis, Halton’s director of education, to clarify in an interview at the time: “The dress code is for students, and the dress code is not for staff.” Although students are explicitly prohibited from having visible nipples, Lemieux was given a pass for months as HDSB dithered.
Julia Malott, a transgender woman and vocal education advocate in the province, laid much of the blame at the feet of the district’s director of education, Curtis Ennis, for being “deeply entrenched in critical social justice.”
“When they are taking that approach to these sorts of matters, they’re not looking at equality. They’re looking at equity,” Mallott told National Review in May.
Lemieux had been placed on paid leave earlier this year following pushback from a group of local parents. However, in late August, a principal of a neighboring school district sent a note to parents and community members that Lemieux would be returning for the upcoming school year.
The district has “an obligation to uphold individual rights and treat everyone with dignity and respect” and “should the school be subject to any disruptions or protests; we are committed to communicating with you as openly and as frequently as possible to ensure student safety — and to share any operational plans,” the principal wrote in a letter first obtained by the Toronto Sun.
The administrator also alerted local parents to new security measures that would be instituted in the wake of the Lemieux’s attendance, including “having students enter and exit the building using assigned doors at entry and dismissal” and “locking exterior doors during school hours, only using the front main doors during school hours.”