Yearbook sparks controversy
Seminole schools offer to remove LGBTQ+ pages from Lyman High’s publication
Seminole County Public Schools is offering to reprint this year’s Lyman High School yearbook and remove two pages for parents upset about LGBTQ+ content, prompting criticism that the district isn’t standing up to bigotry.
The pages highlight the school’s LGBTQ+ community and provide definitions of terms such as gender-fluid and pansexual.
A few parents and students found those pages “inappropriate,” and now the district is offering refunds or reprinted yearbooks with the pages in question removed, according to a memo Superintendent Serita Beamon sent to parents on Wednesday. The yearbook is undergoing further review at the district level, Beamon wrote.
Danielle Pomeranz, who served as Lyman High School’s faculty yearbook adviser, said she disagrees with the district’s offer to scrub LGBTQ+ content. The 256-page yearbook features all aspects of the school’s diverse student body, including Latinos in Action, Black History Month and even the Dungeons & Dragons Club, she said.
“It is unbelievably unacceptable,” she said. “The county is giving into the bigotry and being very cowardly by offering this as an option.”
Most people had no problem with the yearbook, Pomeranz said.
But Jessica Tillmann, chapter chair of the Seminole County Moms for Liberty, said she is concerned about the definitions in the yearbook because she thinks they are teaching children about sex outside the state-approved standards that parents can choose to opt their children out of.
“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.”
No one had requested a reprinted book as of Thursday afternoon, Katherine Crnkovich, a school system spokeswoman, wrote in an email.
“In reference to what is being reviewed, this material is undergoing a district-level review of the process, policy, and law,” she wrote. “No disciplinary actions have been taken for any SCPS [Seminole County Public Schools] employee.”
This is the second consecutive year Lyman High School’s yearbook has sparked controversy. Last year, the district considered putting stickers over pictures of a student walkout protesting the Parental Rights in Education Law, which critics called “don’t say gay.”
An LGBTQ+ section in this year’s yearbook includes a picture of members of the student’s Gay-Straight Alliance, definitions of key LGBTQ+ terms, a passage on the evolution of pronouns and a profile of a student who advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.
An example of key terms includes genderfluid, defined as “a gender identity that changes with time and/ or a given situation. This is opposed to a fixed gender identity.” It defines aromantic as: “Commonly used to describe someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction. Many aromantics still feel sexual attraction.”
The definitions came from The Trevor Project and GLAAD, two organizations that advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.
The principal approved the yearbook’s content, but it is receiving more scrutiny now because the Florida Department of Education got involved, Pomeranz said.
Asked about the issue, Cassie Palelis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said in an email, “We are grateful the superintendent handled the issue locally and is working with the parents in the district.”
Pomeranz defended the LGBTQ+ section.
“They are definitions,” she said. “They are not teaching anything about sex at all. …
Nobody is teaching anybody about sex acts. It is ridiculous.”
A parent not affiliated with Moms for Liberty filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Education about a week ago, Tillmann said. The Florida Department of Education contacted the district about the yearbook issue to get its response, Crnkovich wrote in her email.
Tillmann added that she thinks the district’s response was appropriate, but she wants the yearbook faculty adviser and school principal removed.
Pomeranz said she resigned from her job a couple of weeks ago in part because of Florida’s political climate and a lack of support from Seminole County’s school leadership.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has made transgender issues and parental rights a key part of his platform as he runs for president. The State Board of Education banned classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for all grades unless required by state standards. State lawmakers voted earlier this year to regulate the use of pronouns in schools.
The student yearbook staff thought it was important to represent their LGBTQ+ classmates, said Sara Ward, the yearbook’s editor-in-chief.
“We’ve always had the LGBTQ+ spread in there,” she said. “Our job as journalists and members of the yearbook staff is to provide coverage of the entire school and that includes all of the communities, including the LGBTQ+ community.”
Last year, Seminole County school officials wanted to put stickers over pictures in Lyman High School’s yearbook of a student walkout. Students protested the so-called “don’t say gay” bill that limited classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The School Board reversed the decision and instead opted to provide disclaimers that the protest was not school sanctioned.
The Student Press Law Center awarded the yearbook staff the 2022 Student Press Freedom Award for fighting back against the district’s censorship.