Germantown Municipal School District (GMSD) employs a restrictive policy with regards to yearbooks. GMSD considers yearbooks legal documents, and thus prohibits any non-legal names from being used in yearbooks.

This policy is incredibly detrimental towards GMSD’s transgender student population. Many transgender students prefer to go by a name other than their legal birth name. A legal name which is not one’s preferred name is often associated with deep emotional traumas and higher risk for suicide, as proven by multiple scientific studies. 

We, the signatories of this petition, hold that a yearbook should be a joyful collection of memories for one to look back upon fondly, but due to GMSD’s deadnaming policy, this is unavailable to many trans students. GMSD’s yearbook policy hurts the district’s ideals for the safety and inclusion of its student population, inflicting needless trauma on trans students.

The signatories of this petition demand that the district stop considering yearbooks a legal document, and allow students to change the name used to refer to them in the yearbook. We believe every student should be able to use their preferred name. At the very least, we demand that GMSD allow the use of preferred names listed in skyward and approved by parents to be used in yearbooks. This action will uphold the board's stated values of parental rights and student wellbeing.