Trans woman with OBE returns to Stourbridge school where she was bullied as guest of honour

• ITV Meridian report on transgender woman Joanna Monck returning as a guest of honour to her previous school where she was bullied for a prize-giving ceremony.

A transgender woman has returned to her former secondary school, where she was severely bullied, as the guest of honour at a prize-giving, despite calling memories of her time there "traumatic".

Joanne Monck, who was one of the last people to be given an OBE by the Queen, has returned to King Edward VI School in Stourbridge, 50 years after leaving, to give a speech and present awards at a prize giving.

She is now an avid trans rights campaigner but remembers being badly bullied at the school and wanted to highlight how much the experience of trans people has changed since.

Joanne presented the awards and gave a speech on her experiences.

She attended when it was a boys' grammar school between 1968 and 1973, which is now a co-ed college, inclusive of transgender pupils.

Joanne says she expected the visit to bring back some "traumatic memories", but it's important for her to go back.

She said: "It's a little bit traumatic in many ways because when I was here I was bullied constantly, all the time.

"I think it was generally being perceived as weak, perhaps a bit effeminate.

"I was picked on and as a result I hated school, I absolutely hated it.

"It means a lot. I think it's important for some of the students that were here to see that somebody such as me has and can achieve and I will be putting across a strong message as well."

• Joanne Monck shared highly personal experiences in her speech about what being a transgender person feels like

She said: "I was constantly searching for my rainbow and constantly trying to validate my life as a male.

"Eventually after a very dark day in 2014, when I contemplated suicide, David released Joanne from his body and it was an overwhelming sense of freedom from being trapped."