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An elite all-boys school has allowed a student transitioning from male to female to complete her studies for the first time in its 152 year history.
Headmaster Bradley Fenner advised parents on Tuesday the student knowns as ‘Alice’ will remain at Adelaide‘s Prince Alfred College to complete Year 12, reported The Advertiser.
‘This morning, a student who has been at Prince Alfred College since the Early Learning Centre has told her peers that she is transgender, identifies as a woman and henceforth will be known as Alice,’ Mr Fenner wrote in a letter.
Adelaide’s exclusive boys-only Prince Alfred College (pictured) will allow a student transitioning from male to female to complete her Year 12 studies for the first time
‘The response from the Year 12 cohort was, as we would have hoped and expected, both respectful and supportive.
‘Alice has been dealing with gender dysphoria for some time and has been well-supported in her journey by a range of professionals, both within and outside the College.
‘We are aware of some transgender PAC Old Scholars, but Alice is the first student to transition whilst at the College.
‘It was Alice’s desire and preference to remain at Prince Alfred College and we support her fully in this.’
The $28,200-a-year school is exclusively boys-only and does not enrol female students.
The decision has drawn an overwhelmingly positive response from students after Alice bravely told 150 Year 12 students she identified as female.
The student, known as Alice, bravely addressed her Year 12 cohort on her gender identity (pictured, a stock photo and not Prince Alfred College)
Mr Flannery said he found it ‘very powerful’ when Alice came out to her peers about her gender identity.
‘She is a living embodiment of our college motto … which is: do brave deeds and endure, and that’s exactly what she’s done,’ he told ABC Adelaide.
Parents have also welcomed the move and told The Australian they supported the way the college handled the situation.
‘It does raise a few issues because the whole school has only ever been geared around having boys,’ one parent told the news outlet.
‘I think it is great that the boys have been so welcoming and accepting and apparently the process by which she explained her new life was very moving and they are all supporting her.
‘It does raise a few logistic questions, though, around things like the use of the toilets and so on in what has only ever been a boys’ school.’
The school is reportedly now in discussions with Alice to organise a special uniform for her.
Prince Alfred College was established by the Methodist Church in 1869 and has only been open to boys, except for a handful of female students who studied there in World War II.
Notable alumni include former SA senators Cory Bernardi and Nick Xenophon and influential business leaders like Holden founder Edward Holden, Coopers Brewery’s chairman Glenn Cooper and chief executive Tim Cooper.
Source: DailyMail
