Kerri Nicole McCaffrey

Kerri Nicole McCaffrey is an American transgender educator who was the first New Jersey teacher to openly come out as being transgender and retain her employment.
Biography
Kerri Nicole McCaffrey grew up in Hawthorne, New York—in the vicinity of Sleepy Hollow. Her family later moved to Madison, New Jersey. McCaffrey would eventually graduate from St. Meinrad College in Indiana, and take up teaching.
In 2005, McCaffrey, at the time teaching in Mendham Boro, New Jersey as "Mr." Herb McCaffrey—and in his eleventh year of teaching, underwent sex-reassignment surgery. McCaffrey had the surgery in the middle of the school year (February) and went back to teach at her school district—hiding the fact of her surgery and newly changed gender—until after that year ended for she was not tenured at the time, and transgender protection laws were still not fully passed in New Jersey. Her job was vulnerable at the time, so she had to hide the surgery until she had finished that year. In June of that year, 2005, McCaffrey told her district that she was now a woman and intended on re-entering the classroom as "Ms." McCaffrey that next fall, the fall of 2005. She was hailed for her courage in coming out publicly and McCaffrey vowed to be a good influence in the classroom. However, McCaffrey was not allowed to re-enter the classroom easily, with meetings being held to discuss the affect of her continued employment on the school district's children.
That summer McCaffrey was sent for testing to make sure she was fit to teach. After being approved, McCaffrey finally began teaching as "Ms." McCaffrey. She has been in Mendham Boro Public Schools ever since, and teaches 5th grade there still. She won a NJCTS Teacher of the Year Award in 2008. As of 2012, McCaffrey was a top-ranked United States Masters Swimmer in her age category.

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