Wednesday 10th January 2001

Public school physics master will return to classroom as a miss

By Matthew Beard

Pupils at a public school will be told today that a schoolmaster who has been absent for several months will return later this term as a woman.

Nicholas Tee will resume teaching mathematics, physics and technology at Charterhouse School in Surrey when his sex-change operations near completion.  He will be known in the staff room as Nicola.

The 51-year-old, who is married and has two children, has chosen the gender change after spending his life as “a woman imprisoned in the body of a man”.  He has taught at Charterhouse for 13 years and went to see the headmaster, the Rev John Witheridge, late last year to inform him that he was a transsexual and was receiving treatment to become a woman.

Mr Tee took a sabbatical in September and has been on a course of hormone pills in preparation for a series of operations to become a woman.

Yesterday the headmaster sent out a letter to parents of the 700 pupils and staff before today’s announcement at the public school, in which he said that Mr Tee was now living as a woman.  “Nick also told me that he was very keen to carry on teaching at Charterhouse,” the letter says.  Mr Witheridge adds that there were “no medical or pastoral reasons why Nick should not return.”

Mr Tee’s wife of 27 years was told about her husband’s plans last summer, and has decided to continue their marriage.  Their adult son and daughter fully support the decision, a friend said.  The friend added: “Nick knew from when he was a boy that this was what he felt.  He struggled all those years in silence.  No one else knew.  He felt like a woman imprisoned in the body of a man.

“[The couple] are staying together and Nick would certainly say that her support and love is what made it possible to go through with it.  They are very close and supportive of one another.  She has come to terms with it incredibly.”

Mr Tee said: “I have been fortunate to have had tremendous support from my family and friends.  I am very pleased to be carrying on teaching, which is what I have always wanted to do.”

The teacher discovered his gender crisis at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied engineering between 1968 and 1971.  He began sex-change treatment when he was a student, but abandoned it “because he didn’t feel he could go through with it,” the friend said.  Included in the letter to parents, Mr Witheridge sent a paper written by Dr Herbert Etkin, an expert on transsexuality, who stresses that the teacher’s condition — known as gender dysphoria or gender identification disorder — has nothing to do with homosexuality or paedophilia.

Dr Etkin wrote: “Working with children does not represent a threat to normal emotional and sexual development.”

Last night most parents of pupils were backing Mr Tee.  Susan Davy, whose son attends the school, said: “I think he’s a very brave person and I wish him all the best.  I’m sure the school and the parents will be very understanding.”

She added: “I know that if someone I knew and loved was in the same position as him, I would give him all the support that he needed.”

Another mother said: “This is unbelievable — I don’t know how I feel about it yet.  I have heard that he is a pretty good teacher.  As long as he teaches my sons well, I don’t mind.”

A spokesman for Charterhouse, whose alumni includes Lord Rees-Mogg and Lord Wakeham, said Mr Tee’s job was protected by the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations that came into force on 1 May 1999.

Copyright © 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.