Supposed sexual orientation cause for expulsion for Haitian school children

“Boys who look like girls must find a new establishment to continue their studies,” says a priest in charge of a school in Port-au-Prince

In April 2023, an angry parent contacted the Notre-Dame du Rosaire School administration to denounce an alleged lesbian relationship between Décossard, also known as Wendy, with her daughter.

The school expelled Wendy with an incomplete report card after the complaint, in her father’s presence.

In the hours preceding the decision, “I was placed alone in a room and other students were forbidden from approaching me,” testifies the eighteen-year-old teenager.

Incomplete report card of student Décossard upon his expulsion from Notre-Dame du Rosaire School.

Contacted by AyiboPost, a nun who is part of those responsible for the Notre-Dame du Rosaire School confirms the young girl’s expulsion, without going into details.

“There was no eyewitness evidence, but the school made its decision based on the word of the parents concerned,” relates the nun.

Similar situations occur in several schools in Haiti.

Although it does not have specific figures, the organization Arc-en-ciel d’Haïti (ORAH) dedicated to defending sexual minorities says it has recorded several cases of students expelled from a school because of their supposed or proven sexual orientation.

“Many students from the LGBT community are unable to complete their studies,” Jhonny Clergé, general secretary of ORAH, told AyiboPost.

A young man, Gabrielle Serome, was expelled from a single-sex congregational school in Bel-Air in June 2012 because his gestures and behavior were described as “effeminate”.

The priest who held an ironic monologue at his expense on the day report cards were handed out relayed, according to Serome, that the school was Christian and that “boys who look like girls must find a new establishment to continue their studies.”

Until his expulsion, Serome believes he enjoyed a reputation as an “intelligent student” with his excellent grades.

There was no eyewitness evidence, but the school made its decision based on the word of the parents concerned.

“My mother was surprised and overwhelmed with shame when she discovered that I had been redirected elsewhere,” Serome remembers.

The youngster was expelled during the last exam, in 10th grade – the equivalent of NS1 today – and after four years spent at the establishment.

“I was deeply affected, and finishing my studies was a heroic struggle for me,” emphasizes Gabrielle Serome, whose parents no longer wanted to finance his studies after the expulsion.

Many countries have a legal framework to stem discrimination based on gender and sexual identity, but in Haiti, the legal vacuum continues on several aspects of this issue, according to two lawyers contacted by AyiboPost.

For Guy-Luly Guillaume, lawyer and human rights activist, there is no legal basis for expelling a teenager from an educational institution because of his supposed sexual orientation. This would be a “discriminatory measure” contrary to the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

In its Article 28, the CRC adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989 and ratified by Haiti in June 1995, establishes the right of children to education.

However, “there is no specific law that can take into account [and sanction] criminal [discrimination]” in the country, regrets the lawyer for whom it is a “big void to fill ».

Many students from the LGBTQ+ community are unable to complete their studies.

Normil Denoil, also known as Catalina, says he filed a complaint more than once in 2021 to the Lycée Firmin administration in Port-au-Prince against a 10th grade student, who is generally very hostile in his remarks against the LGBTQ+ community.

According to this student, these people are “human waste to be burned” and nuisances to be eradicated.

One day, said student appeared in the classroom with a pot of trash and spilled it on Normil’s head with incredible violence, as the other students looked on in astonishment.

Identification form of Denoil Normil for the MENFP exams of the ninth fundamental year in 2019.

Normil, known as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and the violent student came to blows. The matter landed in the principal’s office, and although there were two of them arguing, Normil was the only one to be expelled from the establishment, according to his statements.

“The high school principal told me that he didn’t want to make the whole institution uncomfortable because of me,” laments Normil.

AyiboPost went to the new premises of the Lycée Firmin in Turgeau on January 12, 2024. An administrator of the establishment met at the school said he had no memory of the incident. However, he adds that the disciplinary body of the institution does not allow fights: those concerned are “sanctioned by immediate dismissal.”

“The school’s policy is not refractory to the LBGTQ community,” says the administrator. “Members of this community also have the right to education, regardless of their sexual orientation,” continues the man who says he nevertheless remembers a case where the high school administration changed a student’s schedule because he was harassed by his classmates.

There is no legal basis for expelling a teenager from an educational institution because of their supposed sexual orientation.

Without intervention from those in charge, the school environment can become hostile.

During the waves of demonstrations in 2023 which saw some schools authorize students to go without their uniforms, Wendy had become the subject of attention for her clothes and her approach deemed “unfeminine” by classmates at her school, Notre-Dame du Rosaire.

An executive at the establishment discouraged other girls from forming relationships with Wendy, according to her. “I was very mentally affected, I cried continuously and I only wanted to kill myself,” the young girl told AyiboPost.

After her expulsion from the school on rue Magny in Pétion-Ville, Wendy was subjected to hurtful words from her mother who told her that she never thought of giving birth to “a thing” like her.

“Hearing people call me ‘scum’, I had the deep feeling that this is what I was,” emphasizes Wendy, her voice breaking. “I tried to change, but I couldn’t,” she confides.

By Junior Legrand

English translation by Sarah Jean.

Cover image edited by AyiboPost showing a disappointed, unhappy girl student.

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