Junior colleges are adapting to students transgender

Photo Fotolia

Daphnée Dion-Viens

Friday, 26 January, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Friday, 26 January, 2018 00:00

Look at this article

Initiatives are underway in the cegeps of the Quebec city region in order to adapt to the needs of students are transgender.

At the Cégep de Lévis-Lauzon, on the South Shore, a training on the reality of transgender youth is scheduled for next week to all managers of the college. Three employees of the cégep also participated last week in two days of training on this subject. Changes to the administrative point of view have also been made so that a student can use the name he wants.

“We are actively working to raise awareness, to make people understand the realities of these students and well include them in our facility,” says the director of communications, Marjorie Larouche. The college currently attended by transgender people, but “very few,” she says.

Toilet neutral

In addition, all of the cégeps in the Québec city region already have toilets which are neutral, which can be used as much by men as women. Most of these toilets are also accessible to people with disabilities.

However, for these facilities are more visible and better known to students, the Cégep Limoilou provides, change the display to “better represent the status of toiletries, non-gendered,” says the communications consultant Josyka Lévesque.

For its part, the Cégep Garneau already has five toilets ” universal “, identified as such, and expects to increase this number over the next few years.

The Federation of cegeps, it is indicated that training on the reality of transgender people have been data in the majority of cegeps. Many facilities have toilet neutral, identified as such, since few years already.

Last week, a reference guide intended for the education network has been made public, in which there are several measures put in place to adapt the education network to the needs of transgender people.

In all Quebec schools, students, transgender people need to be identified by the first name and the sex they have chosen. They must also have access to washrooms and change rooms that meet their sexual identity, one can read in this guide published by several partners, including the ministry of Education.