ACTION ALERT

The Pennsylvania Student Equality Coalition asks that you attend the Red Lion Area School District meeting Thursday evening, May 16, in solidarity with Isaak Oliver Wolfe, a senior at Red Lion Area Senior High School. Issak will be speaking at the meeting, or making comments to the media after the event. In April, Isaak, who is transgender, was removed from the running for prom king and placed on the prom queen ballot without his knowledge. After his friends and family took his story to social media, the school district threatened to bar Isaak and his girlfriend from prom, and pursue legal action against them.

Isaak and his girlfriend, Taylor Thomas, were allowed to attend prom after the intervention of the Pennsylvania ACLU, and the school district agreed to allow Issak to wear a black gown with other males at graduation. However, despite the requests of the ACLU, Red Lion School District does not plan to read Isaak’s correct name at graduation, nor was he allowed to run for prom king. Most troubling of all is the district’s refusal to implement a nondiscrimination policy, which would protect the district’s transgender students.

Speaking at Midtown Scholar bookstore in Harrisburg last Saturday at an anti-bullying summit, Isaak asked that a sit-in be held during the school district meeting to put public pressure on Red Lion to end discriminatory practices and allow Isaak to have his proper male name read at graduation.

The presence of the LGBTQ community at this meeting is vital. A message must be sent to the Red Lion Area School District that transgender students are valuable members of our communities, and they must have the same rights as their peers. In school districts across the state, transgender students face discrimination everyday. This is an opportunity to show that discrimination against transgender students will no longer be tolerated, and that school districts cannot continue to deny their transgender students the same rights which they afford their other students.

Those attending the meeting should wear green to show their support for Issak. The meeting will be held at 7:30 PM, on May 16 at The Red Lion Area Education Center; 696 Delta Road, Red Lion PA.