United Kingdom: Transgender primary school teacher dies

After having been publicly bullied in a newspaper column in the United Kingdom’s second-largest paper, the Daily Mail, a transgender teacher is said to have taken her own life when the attacks became too much to cope with.

Lucy Meadows, a teacher who was raised male, but recently underwent a transition to live as female, had been doing her job of teaching her pupils, when a columnist of the right-wing newspaper Daily Mail attacked her in a piece titled "He's not only in the wrong body... he's in the wrong job." This began a wave of harassment that drove Lucy from teaching and ultimately - pending the outcome of the coroner's investigation - to suicide.

"People of different sexual orientation face discrimination and violence around the world. EI member organizations are acknowledged for their tireless struggle in defence of quality education, and their commitment to an education free from discrimination," EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen said. "Education is the key to combat prejudice. EI and its affiliates will continue to promote legislation and frameworks that create safer and respectful school environments for all, learners and teachers, regardless of their sexual orientation."