After years of bullying at a previous school, Kieran Atkins from central Victoria, found acceptance through the suicide prevention program WayOut and his new school, which is a member of the Safe Schools Coalition.
Eighteen-year-old Kieran was born a female but never really ever felt like a girl.
His first “clear feeling” of not belonging, happened at the age of 13.
“It just kind of popped into my head — ‘It would be really cool if I was a dude’,” Kieran said.
“Then I noticed this jealousy that I had for all the guys around me and my brothers and all that.”
Kieran talked about his feelings with his parents, who initially thought it was a reaction to his bullying at his school for his autism.
“I wasn’t quite socially adept when I was growing up,” Kieran said.
“[People] just thought I was a little bit weird.”
It was around this time he started to question his sexuality, which he was also bullied about.
Kieran said his previous school did not have the appropriate mechanisms in place to handle the bullying despite having a zero-tolerance to bullying policy.
Instead the school implemented a procedure called restorative justice.