Parents at Oakville school where controversial teacher works launch legal fund

Concerned parents of students in the Halton District School Board, where controversial educator Kayla Lemieux works, have launched yet another legal fund to sue the school board. 

Over the past several months, Oakville Trafalgar High School has been the target of alarming bomb threats, death threats, and protests after photos of Lemieux surfaced online. 

In September 2022, an American radio host tweeted several images and videos of the teacher that had been shared on Snapchat by students at the school. The clips show a woman with long blonde hair, bike shorts, tight tops, and what appeared to be a massive prosthetic breast piece with protruding nipples. 

After months of controversy, Lemieux is now on home assignment, although she is still an employee of the Halton District School Board. 

Another board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday night, where trustees are set to question the board's director of education Curtis Ennis on a new "professionalism policy." 

The policy consolidates "expectations regarding staff professionalism, including dress and decorum, at board and school settings and at school-based activities." 

Transgender teacher causing controversy at Oakville high school again https://t.co/corbuN3iC5 #Oakville

— blogTO (@blogTO) February 21, 2023

Now, parents in the school district have launched another legal fund to sue the board, after being unsatisfied with their efforts to enact an official dress code for teachers. 

The GoFundMe page is titled "fighting lack of professional attire," and was set up to fight "inappropriate dress in the classroom." The description of the campaign states that parents are in need of help with legal fees, and at the time of writing, the page has raised $455 out of its $15,000 goal. 

The first campaign, set up in November 2022, raised almost $10,000. 

"We had expected HDSB to address the situation at the start of the year - but they have allowed it to grow into an international controversy. OTHS and the HDSB have not only failed to address the situation, they have endorsed the teacher's actions by refusing to uphold any dress code for teachers. This is despite the fact that a dress code applies to students enrolled at the school," the first campaign reads. 

Several students told the Star that they feel unsafe at the school amid ongoing threats, while others said that the board's failure to implement a staff dress code had led to increased harassment online. 

Last week, Lemieux told the Star that her comments in a recent New York Post story were accurate, and that she does not identify as transgender. 

Instead, she says she was born intersex and has an undiagnosed medical condition that has resulted in an excessive growth of breast tissue. She said her condition is classified as "gigantomastia," although she's never received a formal diagnosis. 

The educator also denied that she was the person seen in the New York Post photos shot near her home, which show a man without the size-Z breasts.