Students and teachers rallied to support a transgender high school student who was selected as homecoming queen by her peers, causing backlash from angry adults.
Sammi, a student at Pennsylvania’s Fairfield High School, was crowned queen of the annual homecoming dance the night of Saturday, September 26, after winning the most votes from her fellow upperclassmen, Your Erie reported.
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But what should have been a fun and special moment quickly took a turn after the story made the rounds on social media and reportedly inspired a slew of hateful posts directed at Sammi.
“Sammi was voted by the students, and some parents didn’t like that,” student Preston Johnson told Your Erie. “I think that’s quite silly. The whole point of homecoming king and queen is the student votes. And we voted, and Sammi is our homecoming queen.”
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The school also defended Sammi: “Fairview School District has student-led festivities, homecoming being one of them. That includes the selection of homecoming court,” said district superintendent Donald Stark. “We promote inclusion. That reflects our vision statement which emphasizes respecting and embracing the uniqueness of each individual in the pursuit of their personal success.”
Stark also told the Centre Daily Times that people should “remember there is a young impressionable student at the [receiving] end trying to grow into whoever they want to be.”
One angry post came from the virulently anti-LGBTQ+ account Libs of TikTok, run by Chaya Raichik, who has been labeled a stochastic terrorist in the past. Raichik posted the story to her millions of followers and called Sammi “a male student pretending to be a girl.”
“This school allowed BOY to STEAL a crown from GIRL,” she wrote. “They hate women.”
But the school community didn’t take the abuse lying down. Instead, a teacher organized a group to show up at the school board meeting the Monday night after the dance and voice their support for Sammi.
It was standing room only after dozens joined the teacher to stand up for Sammi. Stark said the board was bracing “for a long night of public comment” from people on both sides of the issue. But in the end, only a single student spoke, representing the group who showed up to defend Sammi.
Therapist Jessica Frick told the Centre Daily Times, “People tend to be much more hateful online because they can hide behind a tiny profile picture.”
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