Your Name Matters
The Issue
The decision to not allow students at both Harrison School For The Arts and Lakeland Senior High to present with their chosen name in the yearbook can affect one’s social and mental outlooks. It affects a sizable majority of the student body, including the transgender community and countless others. It is our right to choose how we are presented to peers, and it is the school's job to provide an open and safe environment for students to express themselves. By forcing us to put our legal names in the yearbook, we believe it is taking away that right.
We would like to stress that there is no district-wide rule regarding the school changing names in the yearbook. The policy is fully reliant on the individual school. In collaboration with each other, Lakeland High and Harrison are fully capable of making this a possibility for their students.
The reason the school is prohibiting name changes in the yearbook is, and we quote, “if [they] do it for one, [they] have to do it for all.” What we’re trying to say is that, they should be doing it for all of us in the first place. There are several reasons a student may want to change their name in the yearbook that aren’t just silly nicknames the way Harrison and Lakeland have chosen to assume. Reasons can range from something as serious as being transgender and preferring to present with your preferred name, or something as tame as being better known by another name among your peers. For example, a student named Richard may be better known as Rich, or a student named Annabell may be better known as Anna, and those reasons are both completely valid and serious reasons for wanting a change in your yearbook.
By forcing trans kids to either have their deadnames in the yearbook or not be in them at all, it raises a potential danger if the former is the only option. Anyone can look up their deadname and use it against them. That should not be a choice students have to make.
A name doesn’t define an identity, because identity is a complex thing. But a name is a serious thing and it isn’t always as simple as what is on our teachers’ attendance sheets.
Signing this petition opens new doors to all parties involved, and could really improve our yearbook in a multitude of ways, not just our names.
-A. Clark & C. DeLeonardo
Petition Closed
The Issue
The decision to not allow students at both Harrison School For The Arts and Lakeland Senior High to present with their chosen name in the yearbook can affect one’s social and mental outlooks. It affects a sizable majority of the student body, including the transgender community and countless others. It is our right to choose how we are presented to peers, and it is the school's job to provide an open and safe environment for students to express themselves. By forcing us to put our legal names in the yearbook, we believe it is taking away that right.
We would like to stress that there is no district-wide rule regarding the school changing names in the yearbook. The policy is fully reliant on the individual school. In collaboration with each other, Lakeland High and Harrison are fully capable of making this a possibility for their students.
The reason the school is prohibiting name changes in the yearbook is, and we quote, “if [they] do it for one, [they] have to do it for all.” What we’re trying to say is that, they should be doing it for all of us in the first place. There are several reasons a student may want to change their name in the yearbook that aren’t just silly nicknames the way Harrison and Lakeland have chosen to assume. Reasons can range from something as serious as being transgender and preferring to present with your preferred name, or something as tame as being better known by another name among your peers. For example, a student named Richard may be better known as Rich, or a student named Annabell may be better known as Anna, and those reasons are both completely valid and serious reasons for wanting a change in your yearbook.
By forcing trans kids to either have their deadnames in the yearbook or not be in them at all, it raises a potential danger if the former is the only option. Anyone can look up their deadname and use it against them. That should not be a choice students have to make.
A name doesn’t define an identity, because identity is a complex thing. But a name is a serious thing and it isn’t always as simple as what is on our teachers’ attendance sheets.
Signing this petition opens new doors to all parties involved, and could really improve our yearbook in a multitude of ways, not just our names.
-A. Clark & C. DeLeonardo
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on January 18, 2023