I’m a college volunteer and alumni at Lyman High School in Seminole County Florida. Their yearbooks have already been printed and were supposed to be distributed to seniors on Monday. Now this event is being moved because the superintendent has an issue with the student advocacy spread. 

The yearbook included photos of a student walkout protesting the bill nicknamed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill that occurred in March. The captions do not state anywhere that the school has taken a stance on the issue and is simply documenting the event.

The superintendent is now saying that before the books are released to seniors, those photos must be covered up with white blackout stickers because the content is not appropriate on the grounds that students walking out of class are breaking rules.

However, Lyman High School’s principal told teachers to not stop students from walking out and many teachers attended this event. Also, in 2018 the yearbook included photos from a student walkout advocating for stricter gun laws following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS shooting and those were not met with any resistance.

Also, this year’s yearbooks at Hagerty HS and Oviedo HS include this same walkout, but are not being told they have to censor their content - the biggest difference is Lyman’s photos contain pride flags!

The yearbook staff, yearbook advisor, and myself are furious about this censorship of gay students and need the community & media’s help to stop this.