Today, the Santiago Municipal Education Department rejected the possibility of Arlén Aliaga, a trans student who suffered discrimination and violence at the Manuel Barros Borgoño High School, to enrol in the Liceo 1 for girls, arguing that there are no vacancies and that the institutional education project does not include trans girls.
With Arlén was his mother, Paola Muga, OTD Chile’s legislation and public policy team, as well as commune councillors Irací Hassler (PC) and Natalia Contreras (RD). The person who communicated the decision of the authorities was Leslie Carrasco, who was in charge of school coexistence for the Management, along with DEM lawyer Luis Melo and the psychologist in charge of the psychosocial area, Luiz Santos.
As a solution, they offered enrolment in mixed schools in Santiago, which was rejected by Arlén and her family, since they have already suffered discrimination in other schools and demand transfer to an outstanding high school like Barros Borgoño, which they applied for with great effort. “We are going to appeal until the end,” said Arlén, who has received several messages from Liceo 1 students, pointing out that there are vacancies in several junior high courses. His mother called on the authorities: “Please, I don’t want any more discrimination against my daughter.
OTD Chile’s head of legislation and public policy, Franco Fuica, lamented the situation and said he would support Arlén in all the decisions she makes: ” we are committed to this cause, since it is not only about the right to education, because Arlén’s identity is a major problem here for the authorities, who are not informed, nor did they provide arguments to reject the application. We regret very much that there are first and second category students here, and we invite them to be informed, to apply the current legal framework and not lose the opportunity to make history, because it is not enough just to talk about inclusion, the moment to act has come,” he said.
Councilwoman Natalia Contreras said she will support Arlen to the end. “I am concerned about her mental health, she suffered discrimination for 3 years. This is just about political will,” she said. “This case is special because she suffered discrimination and now compensation is required. What happens here is that her gender identity is not being recognized,” said councilwoman Irací Hassler.
Traslation: Mariana Galvez y Lilly Parra.
