Parents, Students Surprised at Change in Teacher's Gender Identity

Oct. 16, 2008— -- Nearly two dozen children in a Vacaville, Calif., elementary school were yanked out of music class after a female teacher announced to the young students that he wants to be known as Mr. Clark.

Most parents of Foxboro Elementary School's approximately 750 students have left their children in the class taught by James Clark, the teacher who was known as Abbey Clark last year.

But they are disappointed that they heard the news through their young children instead of from Clark.

Susan Lostak, the school's PTA president whose 8-year-old son remains in Clark's class, said she had heard the day before school started that Abbey Clark was planning to return to school as James Clark.

So when Lostak's son got home that day, she asked if anything had been different in music class.

"He said, 'Miss Clark wants to be called Mr. Clark,'" Lostak said. And that was all her son had to say about it. "My son has no problems with it."

Meeting Mr. Clark

Foxboro parents told ABCNews.com that outwardly there has been no change in appearance between the Abbey Clark that taught music last year and the James Clark that teaches this year.

Lostak said Clark had always dressed fairly androgynously, typically in khakis and button-down shirts. One parent said that when he started at the school as Abbey Clark, many parents and children thought he was a man.

Lostak's daughter, Casey Lostak, 12, moved on to middle school this year, but said that students at her school are also buzzing about the music teacher's announcement.

Casey Lostak had Clark as a teacher for four years and took clarinet and trumpet lessons in class. She said Clark was a good teacher.

"I liked her," she said. "She was really fun and really nice."

Casey Lostak said she was a little confused at first by the change from Ms. Clark to Mr. Clark when she heard about it from her mother. But the news hasn't done anything to change her opinion of Clark.

"Sometimes I'm afraid I'm going to call her by the wrong name, like Mrs. Clark instead of Mr. Clark," she said.