Dandara Pedrita, transgender student: "We leave school because we are expelled due to prejudice."

By Ricardo Nêggo Tom, 247 - The case of Bárbara, a 16-year-old transgender student who was beaten by classmates at her school in Mogi das Cruzes (SP), brought the debate about transphobic violence in schools to the program "A Tone of Resistance." This is a serious problem that should not be treated merely as an identity issue, but as a humanitarian cause. This is especially true in Brazil, the country that most assaults and kills transgender people in the world.

For Alexandra Braga, 44, educator and vice-president of the Mogiano LGBT Forum, “entering this dialogue means talking about my own life experience. When we talk about exclusion and school dropout, it's because of the bullying that still happens within schools. I was a victim of this, as a transgender woman. Due to so much abuse I suffered at school, at the age of 15, when my transsexuality was already appearing in my body, I had to drop out because I couldn't take it anymore. And the school itself couldn't address this and somehow remedy this psychological and physical violence. That's when I entered prostitution, which isn't an ideal environment, but it's where I felt welcomed by other transgender girls like me. And even today, in 2022, I don't see any changes. These acts continue to happen within schools because this problem is still rarely discussed by the teaching staff and management.”

Student Dandara Pedrita, director of social movements at UBES (Brazilian Union of Secondary Students), was also a victim of transphobia at school and almost had to drop out. In her case, the aggressor was her math teacher in her final year of high school, who refused to call her by her chosen name during student attendance checks. “When we use the terms 'dropout' or 'abandonment,' it can sound as if we, trans and transvestite people, want to leave the school environment. Of course, these words are ways of giving meaning to statistics that are important for understanding this expulsion process, which is actually what happens, both on the part of education professionals and our own colleagues who practice prejudice and physical and psychological violence against us. Being in a space and not being able to remain there because people don't respect you is a process of expulsion. We leave school because we are expelled by the prejudice of a society that does not respect us as we are. It's not a matter of lack of empathy or tolerance, because we shouldn't be tolerated. People have an obligation to respect us. We live in a reality where 82% of trans and transvestite people are forced to drop out of school during basic education. In other words, from the beginning of our educational lives, we are forced to leave the school environment because of prejudice.”

The guests also analyzed prostitution as the "only" survival alternative for transgender women as a consequence of dropping out of school and being excluded from the job market. Dandara explains that "this issue of prostitution has always been very present in the lives of transvestites and transgender people. This also generates debate within the school environment. Many times, we are not accepted because our bodies are overly sexualized, and people still think that space is not ours. Much of this prejudice and the desire to expel us from this space is because they think we represent a bad image associated with prostitution. Not that prostitution is something bad, because it has saved the lives of many trans people who did not have opportunities." Alexandra recalls that she resorted to prostitution due to a lack of opportunities and, through it, learned to defend herself against the violence and prejudice of society. “Being in prostitution, I learned that the heterosexual, normative, and white society that didn't want me in their companies and didn't want to associate with me was the one consuming my body and seeking me out at night to consume my sex. So I began to understand that I live in a hypocritical and falsely moralistic society that doesn't want me during the day but wants me to exercise its often disgusting sexuality, which they hide.”

Homophobic and transphobic violence perpetrated by teenagers within the school environment, as a result of a conservative family, religious upbringing that, in addition to failing to teach respect for differences, encourages prejudice and intolerance, needs to be discussed by so-called civilized society. Dandara Pedrita laments that “it’s not enough that we are hunted in the streets and other spaces, but today we also have to live being assaulted, or even killed, within the school environment. We already had the case of a trans girl who was assaulted for wanting to use the bathroom she identifies with. This is yet another problem. We can’t even relieve ourselves at school. And this isn’t just a matter of family upbringing, although the family plays a fundamental role in the formation of a citizen.” Alexandra Braga believes that respect needs to guide all relationships. “We want respect. I don’t have to like anyone, but I don’t have the right to assault or violate anyone. Unfortunately, with all due respect to religions, many people have started using the Bible as a weapon in the name of God, to attack us and say that we don’t deserve to live in society. That’s the same as saying: kill them, beat them up, because these people don’t belong among us.”

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