Hi Carl, my name is Maya. I am your school social worker. How are you today? Okay. You're okay?
How's school going? Um, it's hard. It's hard. I get bullied a lot. I don't know why they tease me.
Yeah, you know, I know that can be hard and, you know, school can be really difficult sometimes with friends and everything like that, you know. How has it been making you feel and, you know? Well, it makes me feel really sad.
Just, you know, I like to wear what I wear. And, I don't know, the boys at school are just really mean to me about it. And, you know, I've been really, really sad and mad about it. And recently I got into a fight with another boy.
His name is Max. And, you know, Max has been my main bully. He's been teasing me a lot, calling me a tranny.
I don't know what that word means, but he's been calling me that. I repeated it in front of my dad, and he yelled at me. So I don't think it's a good word. Yeah, I can tell that, you know. Being in school and having trouble with friends can be really hard sometimes, and it can make you have those feelings of being sad and feeling like you can't really have anyone to turn to and being really frustrated.
With Max, I can understand why it might be hard for you to know how to deal with something that's new to you. Is there anything you guys can do about it? Because it's...
I try to talk to my parents about it, but they just brush it off. Yeah, well, for starters, I'm always here, and we can set up appointments for you to come and meet with me and to talk about things with me. Everything that you tell me will be confidential. Do you know what confidential means?
So confidential means whatever you say will stay between us. I do have to tell you, though, if you tell me something that I feel... might put you in harm or put others in harm, I do have to report it to someone. Feel comfortable to share anything with me.
I don't want that to, you know, hold you back. But I just want to let you know that if I feel like it might be more helpful for someone else to kind of step in, I might have to do that, okay? Okay.
All right. So I kind of want to talk more about, you know, your style and, you know, how that makes you feel. And I really love it.
I love that you. feel comfortable dressing the way you want and that's a really really really big step for people especially people at your age it's hard you know to kind of be yourself at times but I really love your style can you tell me more about it well I get a lot of my clothes from my little sister's closet sometimes she has stuff that just you know looks way better than my boy clothes like today I'm wearing You know this shirt with a unicorn on it and I thought it was just awesome. I thought it was way better than my T-Rex shirt I have at home and the boys make fun of me for it. They say it's girls clothes but I don't think clothes you know have gender. Yeah no I understand that and I understand where you're coming from.
Um you know personally I think that you should be able to wear whatever you want and you know, be able to express yourself and not everyone should have to wear, you know, what other people think. And I know it can be hard sometimes to hear that from other people that they don't like what you're wearing, but we have to remember that sometimes it's just because they don't really understand, you know, where you're coming from. But why would they understand?
You know, sometimes that's even a... you know, thing that I don't understand, you know, I don't get, you know, along with everyone else, or, you know, sometimes me and people have, you know, different beliefs, or we see things different, but that doesn't mean that, you know, we can't get along. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of time and getting older for people to kind of understand that, you know. How about your little sister? Do you want to tell me more about your family at home?
Mom and dad don't really get me. They don't understand. Who I am, they just, they want me to be, you know, Carl.
They want me to be a boy. And sometimes I don't feel like a boy inside. Sometimes I feel closer to my sister because I feel like we're sisters.
We're not brother and sister, we're sisters. Sometimes, but even, I don't know, she gets it. She says I can be whoever I want to be, and I love my sister for that. But Dad calls me, like, he calls me a faggot. I don't know what that word means, but I think I'm going to look it up on the computer and see what that means.
It scares me because it makes it seem like it's a dirty word, but I don't know what it means. Yeah. Can you tell me what it means?
So that word is not a good word. You are right. That word, well, we won't say it because it is offensive to some people. So that was a word that was used to make people feel really, really small and to make them feel bad about who they were.
You know how you're a bully? We'll call you things and it makes you feel really, really tiny and really alone. That's what that word was used for. But then why would daddy call me that word?
Because some people don't understand that inside, other people can feel really different and it can be really hard. Is this something that you... maybe want to you know talk about with them with someone else in the room so I'm going to talk to you about it you want to talk to me about it that's okay um I do want to tell you that I can probably find some resources too for outside for people who have gone through this before and can really understand what you're going through better than I can okay I still want to work with you And I want you to come meet with me whenever you feel like you need it. We can talk to your teachers and we can make sure that if you're ever feeling the way you're feeling right now, you can come see me and come talk to me.
But I want you to know that you're not going to be alone through this and that I'm going to be here for you. Does that make you at least feel a little bit better about going to school? It does.
All right. Why don't we, you know, get some more appointments set up. And the next time you come in, we can really talk more about, you know, school and kind of. How to get you feeling a little bit better and more comfortable here, all right?
Okay. All right, it was really nice to meet you today. It was great to meet you too.