An Orlando-area school district is reportedly offering parents of a local high school the opportunity to trade in their yearbooks for reprinted ones that omit pages with gay and transgender content.
Seminole County Public Schools offered either a refund for the yearbook or a reprinted copy without the pages after parents and students at Lyman High School complained that the school’s yearbook was inappropriate due to two pages that included gay and transgender content, the Orlando Sentinel reported .
The offer was reportedly made in an email from Superintendent Serita Beamon, who said the school district is now reviewing the yearbook.
Seminole County Public Schools spokeswoman Katherine Crnkovich did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner. She told the Orlando Sentinel that the yearbook review is of the “process, policy, and law” and that no school district employees have faced discipline.
Florida has been an epicenter of controversy over gay and transgender content in schools beginning last year when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed into law the Parental Rights in Education Act, which was dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics who took issue with a provision that prohibited classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity before fourth grade. The state has since expanded the ban to all grades.
Lyman High School yearbook faculty adviser Danielle Pomeranz said the school district is “giving into the bigotry and being very cowardly” by allowing families to receive a reprinted version of the 256-page yearbook. The pages in question included definitions of “genderfluid” and “aromantic” and relied on explanations from gay and transgender organizations such as the Trevor Project and GLAAD.
Last year, the high school’s yearbook drew controversy for including pictures of a student protest against the Parental Rights in Education Act. Pomeranz has since resigned from her job.
* Article From: The Washington Examiner