Student-led magazine sent to families includes gender identity teachings, district says it’s legal

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – West Orange High School’s student-led magazine “The Blade” was sent to students’ homes and contained controversial topics including gender identity teachings, which the school district said is legal.

Orange County Republican Executive Committee Chair Erin Huntley told Florida’s Voice parents are “alarmed” by the 28-page full color magazine which contained “several controversial topics and insinuated that the content was banned.”

A November edition of the magazine on page 27 defined terms such as “intersex,” “genderqueer,” “transgender,” “gender identity,” “cisgender (cis)” and “assigned sex.”

The magazine also included the following phrases/ topics:

• Page 1: “Another banned book”
• Page 14: “This has once again put Florida in the hot seat just following the banning of books highlighting certain communities…”
• Page 26: “Separate but equal is never equal…”
• Page 26: “Segregation has no place in education, yet OCPS schools are separating bathrooms.”
• Page 26: “These laws have the ability to harm more than just transgender people, they have the potential to harm those who don’t conform to typical standards of masculinity and femininity.”

Huntley said several families will be doing record requests to “be sure that school funds were not used for this project and policy was followed when sharing student information with a third party.”

“Parents demand transparency and expect schools to be focused on education and career preparation – not ideology,” Huntley said.

The magazine is “supported by yearbook sales and sponsorships” and the publisher distributes it directly to the families of West Orange High School, a spokesperson for the district told Florida’s Voice.

Florida’s Voice submitted a public records request to verify the funding of the magazine.

The spokesperson said the student-led magazine is created on school property and the advisor for the group is teacher Jessica Stokes. This is the tenth year that “The Blade” has been created by students.

Orange County School District told Florida’s Voice their Office of Legal Services reviewed the magazine and claimed that it is “in line” with their student publication policy.

The policy said “each high school principal may approve establishment of a school newspaper or magazine for students and their parents.”

It also said the principal is responsible for supervising the publication of newspapers, magazines, yearbooks and programs and for “ensuring that these publications do not impede or otherwise interfere with the educational purpose of the school.”

“Publications shall conform with school board rules relating to communications with the public,” the policy said. “The principal shall retain full editorial control over the style and content of all publications published by his/her school or over any publication which bears the imprimatur of his/her school.”

In an email to Florida’s Voice, the district said the United States Supreme Court ruled that the principal has the right to retain editorial control over student publications. The district cited a 1988 Hazelwood School District case, which the district said a school can exercise editorial control over a publication in order “to associate the school with any position other than neutrality on matters of political controversy.”

The court ruled students in the public schools do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” and said they “cannot be punished merely for expressing their personal views on the school premises.”

Florida lawmakers passed legislation during the last legislative session to prohibit gender teachings in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The Florida Board of Education expanded the regulation to 12th grade with exceptions.

Florida’s Voice also reached out the school’s principal about the GOP group’s concerns but did not receive a response.