Mississippi school excludes lesbian student from yearbook

[Newsjock]

Source: Jackson Free Press

When Veronica Rodriguez opened Wesson Attendance Center's Yearbook on Friday, she didn't find a trace of her lesbian daughter Ceara Sturgis after a long battle with school officials to include a photo of her daughter wearing a tuxedo in the school's 2010 yearbook.

"They didn't even put her name in it," Sturgis' mother Veronica Rodriguez said. "I was so furious when she told me about it. Ceara started crying and I told her to suck it up. Is that not pathetic for them to do that? Yet again, they have crapped on her and made her feel alienated."

Sturgis and her mother commissioned the Mississippi ACLU to protest officials' October 2009 decision not to allow Sturgis' photo to appear in the senior yearbook because she chose to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress.

The ACLU wrote an October letter demanding officials use Sturgis' submitted photo in the yearbook, but Copiah County School District officials refused. Rodriguez said she expected the yearbook to at least contain a reference to her daughter on the senior page. What she discovered on Friday, when the yearbook came in, was that the school had refused to acknowledge her entirely.

Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/school_cuts_gay_student_photo_from_yearbook/

[Orrex]

1. What the fuck is wrong with these assholes?

K/R (out of disgust)

[DevonRex]

3. I'm not only disgusted but THIS time I'm fucking PISSED. nt

[Hepburn]

24. Stupid, bigots...

...that should top the list of what is wrong with them.

What total assholes.

[DevonRex]

2. It's time to write that school some letters. LOTS of them. Snail mail.

Let's be firm but respectful so they can't use anything as an excuse to not hear what we have to say.

Who's with me?

[Quantess]

4. Oh boy....they must like lawsuits.

Because they are going to get sued. And I would like to ask the school admins: Was it really worth it?

[newtothegame]

38. Sued. Like for taxpayer money?

:shrug:

[Quantess]

39. Of course. But from my understanding, most school districts dread lawsuits

because it ultimately results in budget cutting. School districts feel territorial about their money.

[paulsby]

5. what a bunch of assholes

really ridiculous

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dappleganger]

7. No. Words. nt

[Ignis]

13. Oh, I have a few to spare, but they all contain 4 letters.

:argh:

[virgogal]

8. That poor kid .

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

9. It's like these crazy bigots were wearing masks for years

Then a black man wins the presidency and they've all torn their masks off.

They have no empathy. No humanity.

Ugly, ugly monsters. All of 'em.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. We live in a conservative area and I have a nightmare Yearbook tale too.

Someone, most likely her coach, stole her Senior quote. The sorriest thing ever is that it was a plug for his program, under her name. What had been taken from her didn't connect with the girl. She said that the comments were, "nice." Her name wasn't even spelled right.

[KittyWampus]

11. I sincerely hope the school district is sued.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Dear Dear Mississippi....

They sure make us look good over here.

Reading further , looks like it was more of a dress code issue, or so the school claims.

[tavalon]

28. Checking your profile

It's no easy feat to trump your state. Boy, I sure don't miss the south.

[Kalyke]

35. I love the South and will continue to live here.

Unfortunately, some of the people aren't lovable.

:hi:

[SoCalDem]

14. Back in the Stone Age (Kansas circa 1964-1967)

yearbook pics were "official" pics taken by a hired photographer. If you were not there on picture day, your name had "no photo" above it.

Events like prom had group shots with NO NAMES of anyone pictured.

People in the various clubs & activities were names, but as part of the group..in little tiny print below.

but then we also had a STRICT dress code and pretty hash rules by public school standards today...

Each student was told what to wear for picture day and the photos were "shoulders-up" anyway.

Schools have created a lot of issues for themselves, by being too lenient on dress codes & grooming.

I feel badly for the girl, but the whole issue could have been avoided if the photo-op were just a group shot of any number of teens..all enjoying themselves and all UN NAMED.

The "in-group" clique-ish-ness is the real problem. This is what creates the hard feelings & hurt feelings for so many kids in school now.

My wish for future kids would be to have schools return to what they should have been all along.. a place to go and LEARN.. the "I'm cool & you're not" stuff needs to go away..forever.

It;s so odd because usually elementary school kids all get along, but for that 5 year period of time between 13-18, there seems to be two groups of kids in school.. the ones who are miserable every days and the ones who MAKE the other group miserable every single day :grr:

[donco6]

15. So, the school was right then?

Because they do have a dress code - dresses for girls in school photos. The girl didn't follow it and the school cut her picture.

[SoCalDem]

18. shoulders-up pics solve a lot of issues..

schools have always had "free spirits", but on picture day everyone who wanted to be in the yearbook had to wear what was expected of them..

The candid (re-read my comments above) shots of events were full of pictures of people and NO NAMES
attached to anyone,..

the assumption was that if you were in the group, you would recognize yourself, as would your friends & relatives.

[donco6]

22. What's wrong with wearing a tux?

Shoulders up or not?

[TexasObserver]

36. Not really a solution.

It's more of "tell the lesbian to dress like a girl and smile or she won't be in the yearbook."

This notion that students shouldn't be identified individually is bizarre. Yours must be the only yearbook in the history of yearbooks to take that approach. I have a half dozen yearbooks from the 1960s, and like those of my children's and my parents', they have every student identified in every photo.

[X_Digger]

16. What a crock of shit! n/t

[Posteritatis]

17. Several of my friends and I were edited out of our yearbook

That sort of unpersoning really pisses me off. Argh.

[SoCalDem]

19. The clique-ish-ness of the yearbook committee students..that's the problem

teachers give these kids too much freedom to pick & choose their own little group and exclude others.

[Posteritatis]

20. It actually was the staff in my case

I graduated in '99 and we got the start of the post-Columbine backlash against any even vaguely odd groups of students.

(Not that the yearbook committee/student council at my school weren't vile little shits themselves, but..)

[VOX]

21. Shame on them!!!! "Judge not that ye be not judged." Hypocrisy? YOU BET!

When I read things like what this Mississippi school did, my blood pressure soars dangerously.

I'm seriously beginning to loathe these obstructionist, backwater, hyper-religious, know-nothing hayseeds. If they were to mind their own business, I'd say fine, but when they start pushing their AGENDA onto others... :nuke:

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MgtPA]

26. Are you lost?

[RedCappedBandit]

27. America is dying because assholes like you exist.

The fact that you think people like you are 'real men' makes me laugh.

[marmar]

25. I emailed this story to my friend in Sweden earlier today.....

He sent this reply. "Ert land är riktigt jävla galen" with a smiley face next to it.


I finally figured out the translation, using my Swedish/English dictionary and the Internets: "Your country is really fucking crazy."

[donco6]

30. How do you say, "Tell us something we don't know" in Swedish?

:)

[progressoid]

29. Angry k/r.

:mad:

[miscsoc]

31. DUers in the area should organise a picket of that school

It's a civil rights issue. We can denounce it online as much as we like but people need to literally drive down there and whip up publicity.

[BrklynLiberal]

32. Idiots morons and schmucks.....

[athenasatanjesus]

33. Aren't schools run by adults?

I could see children behaving like this toward another student,but I would expect more maturity from the people actually running the school.

[Shell Beau]

34. I haven't heard this.

This is such bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. ARRGGGHH!! It pisses me off to no end.

Quit making this state looks backwards. Good God people. What is wrong with you?
(I am talking to those who are pitching fits about and against gay rights)

[Blue Owl]

37. For some reason when I hear the word "yearbook"

I think of Sarah Palin

[Warren DeMontague]

40. They will claim it was a "mistake", and then they'll give her her own yearbook

maybe her picture taped to an old piece of newspaper.

:eyes:

[barbtries]

41. seems to me

this girl should have a great and lucrative lawsuit against those bigoted FUCKS.

[NoSheep]

42. We should ALL write letters tonight.

[Crabby Appleton]

43. kick

[NoSheep]

44. Address, fax and phone of the school and district office-let them have it.

Wesson Attendance Center
1048 Grove Street

Wesson, MS 39191
Phone: [phone]

Fax: [phone]


Copiah County School District
254 West Gallatin Street
Hazlehurst, MS 39083

Phone: [phone]
(Fax) [phone]

[NoSheep]

45. The Principal's email address:

Ronald Greer

[email protected]