High school yearbook includes pages on sex, drugs, and partying
Missouri parent Michelle Westerfield on the outrage from the community after yearbook included inappropriate topics
A Florida high school is offering yearbook refunds and reprints after it was slammed for a spread that defined terms such as "genderfluid" and "pansexual."
Seminole County School Superintendent Serita Beamon sent parents a memo last week explaining that families at Lyman High School would be able to receive a new edition of the 256-page yearbook without the controversial spread, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The school drew the ire of parents who said one of its two-page spreads contained a list of different sexualities and LGBTQ+ related terms that was "inappropriate."
Among the terms included in the yearbook were "pansexual," "aromantic," "genderfluid," "nonbinary" and "transgender," along with definitions of each that detailed which type of attraction or preference they entailed.
Lyman High School's "The Greyhound" yearbook featured a spread containing LGBT terms that some said were "inappropriate." (FOX 35 Orlando/YouTube screenshot)
Jessica Tillmann, who chairs the Seminole County chapter of Moms for Liberty, told the Sentinel that the definitions included in the yearbook were not age-appropriate.
"They shouldn’t have any sexual definitions in a yearbook," she said. "This is a yearbook that goes to every student as young as 14."
Sharmon Craft, whose child is a sophomore at the high school, told FOX 35 in Orlando that the spread is "really not relevant to school activities, academics, clubs and sports.
"Anything that has to do with a high school experience, these terms and definitions are not appropriate," Craft said.
Parents at Lyman High School in Seminole County claimed the LGBTQ-themed spread in the yearbook was inappropriate and irrelevant to school activities. (iStock)
Others have taken offense with the school's decision to remove the LGBTQ content.
"It is unbelievably unacceptable," Danielle Pomeranz, a former yearbook adviser at the school, told the local outlet. "The county is giving into the bigotry and being very cowardly by offering this as an option."
Pomeranz reportedly claimed most people did not take issue with the yearbook, according to FOX 35.
"The county is giving into the bigotry and being very cowardly by offering this as an option."
"To be fair, it was supposed to have the opposite effect, which was to be more inclusive and more understanding and just gain that perspective," she said.
"We didn’t do anything wrong," she added later. "We covered a full and fair representation, which is what we’re supposed to do. So I’m quite baffled and quite confused why this is a thing, but I’m going to defend our book because I’m proud of it."
Members and supporters of the LGBTQ community attend the "Say Gay Anyway" rally in Miami Beach, Florida, on March 13, 2022. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
Last year, local school board members alleged that photos in Lyman High School's yearbook showing student activists holding pride flags to protest the state's Parental Rights in Education law violated district policy.
The school at first was going to cover the photos with stickers, but decided against the proposal after student outrage.
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The controversy over Lyman High School's yearbook comes amid debate over the fledgling law, which prohibited discussions in class about sexuality and gender from kindergarten to third grade. Detractors have dubbed it the "Don't Say Gay" law.
Fox News Digital's Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
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