Why we’re publishing a story that was silenced by school officials

This week Oviedo Community News offers a voice to a student journalist who might otherwise be silenced. We’ve chosen to publish a story about Hagerty High School students who are transgender, a story that could have originally published in The BluePrint, the student newspaper at Hagerty. Because it wasn’t allowed to publish in The BluePrint, and because it’s well-written, topical and free of opinion and bias, OCN is publishing it. This story has been vetted to meet or exceed our standards for journalistic integrity, including factual accuracy, as with everything we publish. 

Why wasn’t this story published in Hagerty’s newspaper? In short, the school system might violate Florida law if it publishes the story. According to Florida state statutes, a person’s sex is a biological trait, and it is false to refer to them as a gender that conflicts with it. Seminole County Public Schools board policy 5722 gives administrators the right to exercise prior restraint of school newspapers. That means they can keep a story from publishing – discretion they’ve exercised here.

Many of you may know that the State of Florida limits the ability of students and teachers to discuss in the classroom what it means to be transgender. The Parental Rights in Education Act (Florida House Bill 1557), passed in 2022, also known as the “don’t say gay law,” formally limits how transgender and sexuality issues may be taught. Teachers are subject to discipline for failing to abide by HB 1557, which has had a chilling effect on discussion of gender and sexuality in the classroom, regardless of grade level. 

Florida expanded those restrictions with House Bill 1069, passed in 2023, clarifying that teachers aren’t allowed to refer to students by their preferred pronouns or call a student by a name not listed on their birth certificate, something that is touched on in the story we’re publishing. A student born with ovaries but who wants to be called a male name, for example, wouldn’t be granted this request without parental consent.

Florida also recently wrote into law that your sex is determined at birth and you can’t change it later. Florida House Bill 1521, also passed in 2023, defines the sex of a human being as female if you’re born with ovaries and male if you’re born with testicles. Transgender people don’t fit within this either-or definition.

Further clarifying the state’s formal stance on the matter, House Bill 1639, passed in 2024, requires driver’s licenses to reflect the sex listed on the driver’s original birth certificate. This standard applies to public bathrooms and locker rooms, including in schools, with an exception only for people born with a “genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex development.”

Oviedo Community News does not advocate or take a position on issues but we consider it our job to shine a light on subjects that might otherwise remain in darkness and to stand up in the face of government censorship because it hurts us as a community. It’s our hope in publishing this story that our readers might have some questions answered by this “insider’s look” at life as a transgender student navigating teenage life in Florida. As you might expect, the names of transgender students mentioned in the story have been changed for their privacy and protection. Oviedo Community News rarely uses anonymous sources and only promises anonymity to a person in an article if revealing their identity might cause them harm. Read our Ethics Policy here. If you have questions or comments about this, please reach out to us.