The Canadian high school teacher who wears massive Z-cup prosthetic breasts in class has been placed on administrative leave after The Washington Post revealed that she rarely wears them outside of school.
Kayla Lemieux, a shop teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School, was placed on paid leave on Tuesday, according to the Halton School District.
“While not currently on an active assignment, the teacher remains employed with the (Halton District School Board),” spokesperson Heather Francey told the Toronto Sun.
The suspension of Lemieux comes after Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Halton Region MPPs Natalie Pierre, Stephen Crawford, and Effie Triantafilopoulos chastised the school board for “abdicating its responsibility by failing to put the interests and safety of students first,” according to the Sun.
According to Lynn, a mother, “forms of identity and expression presented in the school environment [must] be scrutinised against the child’s safeguarding practises.”
The board has largely remained silent on Lemieux, while parents have been outraged for months about her wearing prosthetics in front of students.
School photos and videos show her wearing tight clothing with large nipples protruding under the fabric of her top.
Several threats of violence have been made against Lemieux and school officials as a result of the controversy.
Meetings of the Board of Education have devolved into chaos as it attempts to address the issue.
The saga gained international attention and came to a head last month when The Post revealed that outside of school, Lemieux frequently removes her breasts, wig, and makeup and appears as a man, sending shockwaves through the district.
Post photos showed a dressed-down Lemieux wearing men’s sweatpants, sneakers, and a puffer vest — no sign of her breasts, makeup, glasses, or wig, a look her neighbour described as “extremely infrequently.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, she insisted that the man in the photos was not her — though she admitted she couldn’t prove it — and denied ever wearing prosthetic breasts.
“These are real,” Lemieux said, adding that she could not say who the person photographed was “because I don’t want to bring anyone else into this.”
“This is who I am. This is how I look. You’ve been talking to people in my building but what they’re telling you is harsh and untrue. I am always going out looking the way I am.”
Lemieux told The Washington Post that, despite beginning hormone replacement therapy in 2021 and being “in transition,” she is “not a transgendered person” and was born “intersex.”
The teacher claims her extra-large beasts are caused by a condition known as “gigantomastia,” but she’s never been officially diagnosed.
According to the renowned Cleveland Clinic, gigantomastia is “a rare condition that involves developing extremely large breasts due to excessive breast tissue growth,” with only about 300 cases reported.
Parents who were outraged demanded it after the Halton District School Board initially declined to implement one last year out of concern that it might violate Ontario’s Human Rights Code.
The school board decided in January to create a rule requiring teachers to dress in a “appropriate and professional” manner.
Lemieux denied dressing provocatively, but she did say that she “would follow the direction of the board on what they mandated” in an interview with The Post.
“I don’t think there’s any problem with how I have dressed. It’s the personal opinion of other people. I don’t think I have dressed unprofessionally,” she said.
