By KAYLYNN DAY
Staff Writer
Administrators at Sheridan High School in Sheridan, Arkansas made the executive decision to pull seven student profiles from their 2014 yearbook due to the fact that one of the profiles would be written about an openly gay student. 17 year old Taylor Ellis was approached by the schools yearbook editor and asked to conduct an interview about his decision to come out and announce that he was gay. The yearbooks staff thought that having a profile on Ellis would be interesting because “It’s a big thing in Sheridan to be gay. That’s something that doesn’t get told a lot,” Once word got back to the officials about Ellis’ profile, they decided to not only take his profile out of the yearbook, but those of six other students as well. Hannah Bruner, the yearbooks assistant editor was deeply disturbed about the schools decision and decided to report the incident to the Department of Human Rights in hopes in getting justice for the wrong doing against Ellis.
A burst of public support rained in from the Sheridan community in Ellis’ favor, creating backlash against the school and its administrators. Sheridan School District superintendent Dr. Brenda Haynes released a statement to the public regarding the issue stating that “We must make decisions that lead in the proper direction for all of our students and for our community”. If the Sheridan School District believes that discriminating against an openly gay student is in the best interest of their students and community, then they are in desperate need of reevaluating their mission and policies. It is unclear how supporting a student’s brave decision to share and embrace their sexuality, something that many struggle to do, does not go in the “proper direction” that the district is attempting to go in. A factor that is clear on the other hand is the reason behind the schools decision to pull Ellis’ profile. Whether it was a personal vendetta against the gay community or fear of backlash from the community, the Sheridan School District did not want to be associated with having a gay student or the attention that would come from it. Backlash was something that would not have prospered inside of the school due to the fact that most school and community members have been nothing but supportive of Ellis and his decision since he announced his sexuality. Instead of embracing the presence of diversity in their district, Sheridan administrators attempted to hide it and pretend that it did not exists.
It can be questioned if the school district was following the direction of the state in the support of gay couples. Arkansas is still one of many states who does not support gay couples or their right to marry. Through their decision not to allow Ellis’ profile to be a part of their yearbook, it is clear that the Sheridan School District does not support it either. The discrimination and hatred against the LGBTQ community and the debate that comes along with it is one that is quite frankly getting out of hand and not to mention extremely old. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions on the issue, but when it’s all said and done everyone has their own life to live and own choices to make. No one, whether gay or straight, should be criticized for who they love; especially a teenage boy.
As for Taylor Ellis, he along with the help of the Sheridan community has compiled a petition containing 30,000 signatures that has been given to the Department of Human Rights in hopes of getting the schools decision not to publish his profile reversed. Not only should the Sheridan School District allow Ellis’ profile along with the six others student’s to be printed in the yearbook, they should release a public apology to Taylor and his family. Not supporting Ellis’ life choices is one thing, but to publicly discriminate against him is taking things to another level. It is wrong and unjust for the district to publically ostracize one of their students in this manner. Cases like these go to show that although the LGBTQ community has gained many rights and much acceptance in some parts of the country, much more work needs to be done in order to stop injustices like this from happening. In order for that to happen, we as a society need to begin to embrace diversity as the Sheridan School District should have done in this situation instead of trying to makes outcast out of those who are different. If anyone would like to show their support or voice their opinion on this matter, the hash tag #StandWithTaylor can be used as an outlet to do so.
