Parents pull transgender third grader from school due to bullying

A Grapevine family said they had no choice but to pull their third grader out of school because she was being bullied for being transgender and wasn’t getting proper treatment.

Marilyn Morrison started the school year as a girl for the first time in her life, but she’ll finish the school year at home.

A couple of weeks ago, the 8-year-old loved being the center of attention and even asked to be part of the Pride Parade in Dallas. But at school, she says she was alienated due to constant bullying from some of her peers about her gender identity.

“It makes me feel like I'm my old self when I was a boy,” she said.

Marilyn, who was a boy at birth, returned to Cannon Elementary School in Grapevine this year as a transgender girl. The third grader says many of her classmates and teachers didn't embrace the change.

“I just can't take it,” she said. “It's too much for a kid like me.”

“In the end, it was getting to the point that she had already lost faith,” explained her mom, Chelsa Morrison. “Every time she would try to go to a teacher and follow proper protocol, it always ended up in it is a misunderstanding. You send it to the point that she didn't want to talk to them anymore.”

Mom says the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District offered to let Marilyn use the bathroom in the nurse's office and library but claims that plan wasn't properly executed.

“It came to a point when the teachers would ask her when she asked to go to the restroom which one are you going to in front of a whole classroom full of people,” Chelsa explained.

So after a family discussion, Marilyn's parents decided to withdraw her from school.

“It has been a hard journey so far,” Marilyn said. “But I think that now that I homeschooled, I won't have to deal with kids bullying me.

It’s not the solution Chelsa was hoping for but believes it’s what's best for her daughter.

“It's hard to have to speak up and out my daughter, but I don't have a choice,” she said. “I feel like it's the only way that I can protect her. It kills me to know the kids could be so hateful.”           

A district spokesperson told FOX 4 that they couldn’t release any information about a minor student.

Marilyn and her family plan to attend a federal hearing in Wichita Falls on Friday to represent transgender students.