An Escambia Academy High School student who wore an eagle feather on her graduation cap was denied her diploma after graduating May 23. According to a contract issued by the school in Atmore, Alabama, 17-year-old Chelsey Ramer, of the Poarch Creek Band of Indians, would not receive her diploma or high school transcripts until she paid a $1,000 fine for wearing the feather. 
 
 “I feel like this wasn’t fair. It felt like it wasn’t legal,” Ramer said. “It really did hurt my feelings. I have watched others wear it and I looked forward to it my whole four years there. Now when it was my turn, [they said] I couldn’t.” 
 
 Ramer said American Indian seniors four years ago wore feathers to the school’s graduation, but because it was a surprise to the school, no action was taken. 
 
 “About two months ago, me and the other Indian seniors from the graduating class asked our headmaster if we could wear the feathers on our caps. She told us ‘no’ and that if we did, she would pull us off the field,” Ramer said. 
 
 Ramer says soon after their request, the school gave graduating students a contract that they had to sign or they would not be able to participate in graduation. 
 
 “I never signed that paper,” she said. 
 
 The contract outlined rules for what to wear at the graduation ceremony. It forbid any “extraneous items during graduation exercises.” It also said students violating the contract would not get their diplomas until appropriate disciplinary actions were taken and students paid a $1,000 fine. 
 
 Ramer decided that expressing her Native heritage with an eagle feather was worth the consequences. Of the other three Native seniors at Escambia, one wore a feather on a necklace and did not face any disciplinary actions; the other two did not wear a feather at all for fear of being fined. 
 
 While Ramer was nervous on graduation day, she had been looking forward to wearing that eagle feather for four years, so she wore it with pride. 
 
 “I got my friend behind me to put it on my tassel, I went down the field. They didn't say anything, but you could tell the staff and the headmaster was upset. But everybody clapped for me,” she said. 
 
 Though no one addressed the issue during the ceremony, she was not given a diploma. “I turned in my cap and gown and they just looked at me,” Ramer said. 
 
 When Ramer visited the administrative office on May 29 to speak with Headmaster Betty Warren, she was told Warren was no longer with the school. 
 
 According to the school’s website, David Walker, the girls’ basketball coach is now serving as the interim headmaster. It is unclear if this change is related to the graduation incident. 
 
 “I went in today to talk to Mrs. Warren and they told me she had gotten fired,” Ramer said. “I looked in her office and it was already cleaned out… I asked why she got fired and the people told me they didn't know. I didn’t say anything, but Coach Walker said some people from Indian country were calling him and asking for a statement, but he didn’t know what to tell them.” 
 
 Alex Alvarez, Creek, a former teacher of Ramer’s and family friend who attended the graduation ceremony, says the situation is frustrating. 
 
 “I think this is ridiculous. If they took the time to understand and respect the differences in individuals, this would have never happened,” he said. “We don’t have much left as Indian people, to give a child an eagle feather as an achievement should be adhered to.” 
 
 Alvarez said for the past two months parents and tribal council members had requested to speak with school board members to discuss the issue of the eagle feather but such requests were never granted. 
 
 “The kicker is that this is a private school,” Alvarez continued. “Private institutions still have to follow federal guidelines, especially in regards to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.” 
 
 Alvarez even wrote to his local newspaper, The Atmore Advance, citing these concerns, but the school didn’t change its stance. 
 
 ICTMN made several attempts to contact the school for a comment, but none were returned. 
 
 Ramer still does not have her diploma. She said after speaking to Coach Walker, “He said if it was up to him, he would give me my diploma… but he had to go through the board to get it approved.” 
 
 See the contract handed out by the school below: ||||| A central Pennsylvania school district has refused to allow a transgender student's male name to be announced during his graduation ceremony later this week. 
 
 
 
 Eighteen-year-old Isaak Wolfe had asked the Red Lion Area School District in York County to allow his male name to be announced during Friday night's ceremony. 
 
 
 
 The school board said earlier that Wolfe would be allowed to wear a boy's black graduation gown. But board solicitor Ben Pratt said a diploma is a legal document and must bear the recipient's legal name. Wolfe's given female name, Sierra Stambaugh, is to be read as he walks across the stage. 
 
 
 
 American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Molly Tack-Hooper said Wolfe is in the process of changing his name but hasn't had time to complete the process. 
 
 Last May, Wolfe and more than 50 supporters wearing stickers saying "His name is Issak" attended a Red Lion Area School District board meeting. They brought with them a petition of 2,000 signatures urging the board to allow Wolfe to use his male name 
 
 The student uses the name Issak Wolfe, but is enrolled at Red Lion High School in York County as Sierra Stambaugh. 
 
 Board solicitor Benjamin Pratt said it has always been procedure to use students' legal names. 
 
 Transgender Student Fights School 
 
 A transgender high school senior petitions to use his new name at graduation. WGAL-TV's Pete Muntean reports. (Published Friday, Sept. 4, 2015) 
 
 Wolfe said ahead of the meeting that he was fighting the decision -- and calling for a policy to protect future students from discrimination on the basis of gender identity, to help others like him. 
 
 "It's incredibly hurtful, and if I can prevent somebody else from being hurt in that way, that's what I want to do," he told The Associated Press. 
 
 Wolfe said he's also speaking out because high school principal Mark Shue listed him by his birth name on the ballot for prom queen last April, denying him a chance to run for prom king as he had hoped. 
 
 Wolfe said Issak is the name he would have been given had he been born a male, and Wolfe is an old family name. 
 
 "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." 
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union had demanded an apology for Shue's decision, but the district balked, saying it had already apologized for a "lack of communication" on where Wolfe would be placed on the prom court ballot. 
 
 Red Lion's superintendent, Scott Deisley, did not return a phone message from The Associated Press. 
 
 Wolfe said that growing up, he was unhappy in his own skin and had a feeling that something was wrong. By 10th grade, he said, he had pinpointed the cause of his distress: He wanted to live as a man. He asked his mother to buy men's clothing and "she was like, 'OK, whatever you want.'" 
 
 Wolfe is working on a legal name change. He said in his statement to the school board that the district's insistence on reading his female name at graduation "serves no other purpose than to hurt me more." 
 
 About half of his teachers call him Issak, and the rest call him Sierra, he said. 
 
 "My teachers have not changed how they treat me. They're all still great," he said. "The name thing is stressful, but they haven't changed their behavior toward me." 
 
 Copyright Associated Press
– Chelsey Ramer, a member of the Poarch Creek Band of Indians, wanted to wear an important symbol of her Native American heritage when she graduated from her Alabama high school last month: an eagle feather. But the principal of Escambia Academy denied her request; soon after the school distributed a dress code contract (which prohibits "extraneous items" worn during graduation) that seniors had to sign in order to walk during the ceremony. Chelsey didn't sign, walked anyway—feather attached to her cap's tassel—and now she's been fined $1,000, which she must pay if she wants to get her diploma and transcripts. "I don't think it's fair at all. I feel like it's discrimination," the 17-year-old says. Her tribal teacher points out that though the school is private, it is still required to follow the federal American Indian Religious Freedom Act, reports Indian Country Today Media Network. Chelsey tells Local 15 the principal was fired after the incident, thought it hasn't been confirmed that the departure is related to the feather issue. She says she's waiting to see if the school board reverses the decision and is also seeking legal counsel.