Central Florida's Lyman High School received a huge amount of stickers to censor their yearbook, which featured images of students peacefully protesting Gov. Ron DeSantis's discriminatory "Don't Say Gay" law. Students were told they would not get their yearbook until an entire page — which included images of rainbow flags and a "love is love" sign that students held during a walkout — was "edited" out with stickers.
But the superintendent–approved censorship-scheme failed Tuesday night after students and parents went to the school board and won.
From ABC News:
The superintendent told the board that the page violated their policy by seeming to endorse a student walkout. Stickers to cover the entire page had already arrived and would be added before yearbooks are handed out this week, she said. …
More than 30 students, parents and teachers spoke out in opposition to the sticker plan. "It is silencing the LGBTQ-plus community and silencing the journalistic community," Sara Ward, a student on the yearbook staff, told the board.
"I want to be clear to each and every student that this was not about the Lyman High School administration looking to try and target any student, to try and silence any voice," Superintendent Serita Beamon said as she tried to explain her decision.
She denied that covering up the entire page would violate the First Amendment or the board's policy, which she said authorizes prior restraint of school sponsored publications. …
The board wasn't having it.
Yearbook staffer Skye Tiedemann summed up the night as a clear win for student speech.
