A protest will be held in front of the Education Ministry in Tel Aviv on Sunday to demand that officials enable Osher Band, a 15-year-old transgender girl from Ashkelon, to return to school.

Band stopped attending school about six months ago after receiving death threats from other students. She was assaulted by a girl at school and required hospitalization.

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Her story was publicized in Haaretz about two weeks ago.

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“After a long period without support from the school or the Ashkelon education department, my community and I have been left with no choice but to protest and call for our lives to be safeguarded and the law protecting students’ rights to be upheld, and that schools not discriminate based on gender. We want to be equal,” said Band.

“Since the story was published, I feel good that everyone understands what I’m going through, although I’ve received negative responses from people who say I’m lying. I hope to find a place that suits me and other teens like me,” she said.

The protest is being organized by a group named Ma’avarim, which fights for lasting change for the transgender community.

Band stopped attending school at the beginning of the school year, after other students attacked her verbally and physically, including threatening her with a knife.

But she wasn’t able to find another school, and her mother received a letter threatening possible criminal proceedings if she didn’t return to school. Earlier this month, she returned to her school, the ORT Henry Ronson High School in Ashkelon.

But a classmate promptly attacked her and she was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury. Band said that her teachers failed to help her. They also asked her not to come to school with hair extensions and long nails so as not to call attention to herself. The school disputes her account.

As Haaretz reported last week, the Health Ministry in cooperation with LGBTQ organizations drafted a set of procedures a year ago to help schools deal with pupils undergoing a sex change, but in January it halted the work and ended up issuing no guidelines.

In the meanwhile, transgender pupils suffer because there are no such guidelines for schools and each school does as it sees fit – even if that means ignoring the issue.

After Haaretz’s initial article was published about Band, dozens of people contacted her offering support, including Knesset members, lawyers, private tutors, social organizations, and Orthodox rabbis voicing public support for her. However, no Education Ministry representative reached out, and Band has not yet found a school to attend.