School board refuses to call transgender student’s male name at graduation

Earlier this spring, 18-year-old Isaak Wolfe made headlines for wanting to run for prom king.

Red Lion Senior High School, located in central Pennsylvania, refused to grant his request for one simple reason: he was born a female.

Now the transgender student is battling the school board once again. This time, Wolfe wants his male transgender name read aloud at graduation. School officials insist that Wolfe's given name, Sierra Stambaugh, be read instead.

The school board is permitting Wolfe to don the boys' traditional black graduation gown instead of the girls' yellow one, but because the diploma is a legal document, protocol dictates that a student's legal name must be on it.

Also see: Transgender teen upset he can't run for prom king, only prom queen

Wolfe is in the process of legally changing his name, but hasn't been able to complete the process in time for graduation, says American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Molly Tack-Hooper.

"We are maintaining the position that we will read the legal name at graduation," school board solicitor Ben Pratt responds to Wolfe's attorneys.

Last May, Wolfe brought a petition of 2,000 signatures before the board, requesting that Wolfe be allowed to use his male name. If the school had opted to use his male name earlier this year, he would have been on the ballot for prom king, not prom queen.

"I've never gotten too much trouble from other students about who I am," Wolfe said in remarks prepared for delivery to the school board. "But when Principal Shue listed me under my old name on the prom queen ballot, it was the most humiliating and demeaning thing that has ever happened to me at school."

Also see: American women's university, Smith College, rejects transgender applicant

Wolfe is now calling for a policy to protect students like him from discrimination on the basis of gender identity, NBC Philadelphia reports.

"It's incredibly hurtful, and if I can prevent somebody else from being hurt in that way, that's what I want to do," Wolfe tells The Associated Press.

Wolfe says that even if the board refuses to call him by his male name, he will still attend graduation.