The family of an 11-year-old schoolgirl are furious after a teacher allegedly called her the incorrect name and gender in class.
Rae'An Duncan-Jones claims she was called the name “Ryan” and referred to as “he”, which left her feeling “embarrassed” and saw her mocked by other students.
The girl claims that after being forced to "continuously correct" the teacher, she “gave up” but left shocked when another staff member questioned her stating they had been told by staff she identified as 'he'.
Rae'An's family says they immediately pulled her out of Sir Bobby Moore Academy in Stratford, East London, and demanded a meeting with the head of year over what they felt was “bullying.”
Rae'An's mum Rueanne, a former teaching assistant, says they were told it was all a “misunderstanding” and that measures would be taken to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.
However Rae'An, who was born female, claims that the teacher proceeded to call her Ryan once more.
Bobby Moore Academy told the Mirror it is committed to being an 'inclusive and welcoming' school and will always conduct a thorough investigation if a complaint is made.
Rae'An's sister Shanaé, 27, who attended the meeting, told the Mirror: “I was fuming. But then I also felt hurt because anyone that knows me and my family, me and my sister, my sister is like my baby, we're so close. I definitely feel like it's bullying.
“My main thing when she started going into Year 7 was, ‘I hope there's no bullies, I don't want my sister to deal with any bullies.’ She's such a kind hearted person. And it's harder for her to speak up about it because it's a teacher."
Rueanne mum claims that issues began when the teacher called out the register.
Rueanne said: “Initially the teacher kept calling her Ryan and the first time she did that Rae'An put her hand up and told the teacher, ‘my name is Rae'An.’
“The teacher sort of let it go over her head, and every time it was a register call she was still calling her Ryan.
“My children didn’t tell me straight away because I was in hospital a lot over the last year. They told me and I was like, ‘I'm not having that.’
Rueanne says that when her daughter came to visit her she wore bright red lipstick which was ‘unlike her’ which left the mum-of-three feeling that the teacher’s behaviour was impacting her.
Rueanne said: “She referred to Rae'An as “he”, as a boy and Rae'An said, ‘I told you I'm a girl. I'm not a boy.’
“She still continued to refer to her as Ryan and when she referred to Rae'An in the class she said, ‘the two boys at the front of the class and her school friends were like, 'she’s a girl.’
"Rae'An then said she got tired of it, she just didn't correct her anymore. She just stopped correcting. She corrected her in the first month but just continued to do it anyway.”
The family says that Rae'An claims other students began mocking her and calling her Ryan but stopped once "they realised how serious it was."
But things escalated again when a different teacher approached Rae'An and asked about her pronouns.
Shanaé said: “Rae'An said that another teacher approached her and asked her if she identifies as he/him.
“The teacher said, ‘another teacher said to me, that basically, that you now identify as he/him.’
“And they asked Rae'An, ‘I want to know if those are the correct pronouns.’
“My reaction straight away was, ‘what are you talking about?’
“I asked Rae'An, ‘have you ever mentioned anything?’, because I’m quite close with my sister so I don’t think she knows much about [gender identity].”
The family then raised the issue with the school and claim they were told a meeting would be held between teachers and Rae'An.
The family says that they did not feel they were listened to during the meeting and claimed the teacher denied everything and appeared to insinuate that Rae'An had ‘made it up' .
Shanae said: “I had to hold my temper because the way it played out to me was like my sister's making it up.”
Afterwards, the school sent Rae'An’s mother an email seen by the Mirror stating that it had all been a “miscommunication.”
Rae'An’s aunt Samia also attended the meeting and felt “sceptical” that the school would conduct an internal investigation and they would take measures to ensure it didn’t happen again.
The family says they even suggested that the teacher refer to Rae'An as Rae to avoid any further issues.
But two weeks after the meeting and the promised changes, Rae'An claims the teacher called her Ryan again.
The family says they did not inform the school of this as they felt that it “wouldn’t make a difference” as the school did not “accept responsibility.”
Samia said: “I was a bit sceptical as to whether the school were going to actually do what they said they were going to do with regards to the internal investigation.
“As parents we are very protective of our children. So if there's teachers that are making them feel unsafe, what do we do from there?
“If students in the group were bullying her. It would be a continuous process, the children, the bullying would have been removed from the school, because that's part of the protocol.
“That's part of how they do it. Why is it not any different teachers? Because these are adults.
“These are people that are supposed to know better, regardless of whether you're from here, whether you're from another country, whether you're from another planet, bullying is bullying at the end of the day.”
A spokesperson for Bobby Moore Academy (Secondary) said: “Bobby Moore Academy is committed to being an inclusive and welcoming school where all students and staff respect one another.
“Whenever complaints are raised by pupils or parents we will always conduct a thorough investigation.
“We have reviewed the details associated with this issue and we had met with the parents of the pupil concerned back in January to discuss and resolve this matter.
"At the time of responding we are not aware of any outstanding concerns or complaints. We are, however, always happy to revisit any concerns.
“We work hard to build positive relationships with our families as we want to ensure that everyone has a positive experience at our school.”
