Becoming Kerri
When McCaffrey returned to school, she finished out the last few months of the academic year “reverse cross dressed” as Herb, hiding her new body to not confuse her students.But she let the administration know of her transition in June and that fall she was prepared to start teaching as Kerri.
It was a trying experience. McCaffrey had to submit to an independent psychiatric exam to determine her preparedness to teach, tests she already went through before she went through her transition. But she agreed to take them again to get back to teaching.
“I had to be a perfect teacher that first year. It’s a lot of pressure,” McCaffrey said. “The improbability of getting tenure when there were no laws on the books was a miracle. I thought [after the transition] I would be out on the street in a box.”
McCaffrey also had to personally convince some parents to keep their children in her class.
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