With the new school year set to begin in Farmington on Aug. 29, Irving A. Robbins Middle School rising eighth graders Miles* and Quentin* are cautiously optimistic.
According to Miles, who identifies as nonbinary, and Quentin, who identifies as transgender, their seventh grade years were fraught with bullying from fellow students and the feeling that school administrators didn’t do enough to protect them and their LGBTQ peers.
They say the harassment and bullying they experienced ran the gamut from microaggressions such as whisper campaigns and stares in class, to being deadnamed and called homophobic slurs, to being urged to commit suicide, to allegedly being assaulted at the end of the school year when a student attempted to pull off a Pride flag that was tied around Miles’ neck.
