As the world celebrates Teacher’s Day, one of the most anticipated tests of the new school year came on the very first day of classes in the small upstate city of Batavia, in New York, when a high school teacher known to students last year as a man returned to class as a woman. Summer’s end brought a crash course for faculty, students and parents on gender identity disorder, the condition behind the teacher’s decision to switch sexes.

Still it was awkward, student Ryan Nanni said, to walk into physics class that first day and see a man “presenting” as a woman – dressing and living as female in preparation for sex reassignment surgery. “I didn’t know that she would try to be talking as a woman. I didn’t know that she would be wearing lipstick and earrings and all that stuff,” the junior said. “I was just really thrown off by all of this.”

Although things may be going well in the classroom, some people Batavia disagree with the district’s handling of the situation. Administrators say their decision to support the teacher was guided by the state’s human rights law, which recognizes gender identity disorder as a disability.