“How could this happen?” was senior Theo Helfers’ response to learning that he had been misidentified in the 2015-2016 yearbook. Helfers, who is transgender, was identified by his birth name, which does not signify his gender. While this misidentification was accidental, it has brought up questions about what the school is doing to support its trans students.

“I viewed it as one of many mistakes,” Principal Tom  Rogers said of the incident. “No mistakes were intentional.” Rogers also explained that there were other students misidentified in this yearbook who are not transgender. In the past few years, students names have been placed with the wrong picture, or their names have been misspelled.

“I was pretty upset,” Theo Helfers said. “My name was changed, this shouldn’t have happened.” Helfers has had his name legally changed since the summer of 2015 and his name has been changed in many of the school’s records.

“I felt terrible about it” Mrs. Rizzo, the advisor for the yearbook, said. With the theme of the yearbook this year being “We Are”, the goal was to be as inclusive as possible.

“The book is going to represent everybody in the school,” Mrs. Rizzo said. “Having him excluded defeated the whole purpose.” Mrs. Rizzo explained that her yearbook class has an entire unit in which they talk about inclusiveness in similar publications.

“This was not intentional.” Mrs. Rizzo said. “[It was] an oversight that happens with the complexity of putting together so many names.” There are 2,000 students here at GHS, which can leave room for error when trying to identify anyone.

While the misgendering of Theo was unintentional, it has brought up questions about what the administration is doing to support transgender students.  

“There’s been quite a bit of proactive professional development.” Mr. Rogers said. Speakers like AJ Jennings from Illinois Safe Schools Alliance have come to Geneva to inform faculty about transgender rights and issues, as well as the importance of respecting people’s pronouns.

“All we can do is strive for perfection,” Mr. Rogers said. He explained that every year additional steps are taken in order to prevent mistakes in the yearbook.

“There needs to be a system of checks and balances,” Helfers said. “Everyone should know what their name is going to be and make sure it’s correct.” Mrs. Rizzo has already begun work to create such a system. Last year Mrs. Rizzo worked on her own in an attempt to correctly identify everyone in the yearbook.

“I came up with a form where we write the student’s legal name and then the name we heard they prefer.” Mrs. Rizzo said. This year she has teamed up with administration, as well as counseling and advising, to ensure that students can be properly identified in the yearbook. Part of this process involves reaching out to students to ensure that they feel they are being identified properly.

 “It’s important for the community to know that we support all of our students,” Mr. Rogers said.