At least six transgender students are facing hostility as they prepare to graduate from D’Iberville High School because of policies that attempt to erase their existence at the Harrison County school.
The students, who wish to remain anonymous until after Saturday’s ceremony, found out when yearbooks were distributed this month that their photos had been omitted from the senior class.
One transmasculine student was then publicly outed on May 17, when D’Iberville High School’s Facebook page posted what appears to be a digitally altered version of his senior portrait while congratulating him as this year’s salutatorian. highlights Jonas Hole’s “hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence.” It also repeatedly uses his former name, also known as a deadname.
For transgender people, being called by a deadname is a form of erasure, said Jensen Luke Matar, director of the statewide Transgender Resources, Advocacy, Networking and Services (TRANS) Program.
“It’s just dehumanizing,” said Matar, who is transgender and the parent of a transgender teenager. “You’re feeling like other people hate you, like they don’t have basic decency for you, a basic level of respect for you.”
Matar, who is in contact with parents of the transgender students, said Hole does not wish to speak to media until after graduating. While the majority of D’Iberville students impacted are transgender, a cisgender female student who wore a tuxedo in her senior portrait also did not appear in the yearbook, he told Mississippi Today.
A person who answered the phone at the D’Iberville High School office hung up after Mississippi Today reached out for comment. After being reached by Mississippi Today, the Harrison County superintendent did not provide comment before press time.
The turmoil around this year’s graduation is the latest example of Harrison County schools trying to enforce gender norms on LGBTQ+ and transgender students.
The school district has created stricter policies for transgender students in recent years, said Matthias Daniels, a transgender man. He said that when he graduated 10 years ago from Harrison Central High School in Gulfport, he wore pants and a button-up shirt without pushback. When a female transgender student wanted to wear a dress to her graduation in 2023, school officials told her to follow the boys’ dress code. She ended up skipping graduation altogether to celebrate with her family in an affirming environment.
Daniels said Harrison County’s student dress codes are transphobic and queerphobic.
“I think kids are going to die over this. If not die, I think kids are going to be irreparably harmed by this mentally,” Daniels said. He said the situation makes him angry and disgusted at what the nearby school in D’Iberville did and has failed to correct.
Data from LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLAAD shows transgender people being the target of over half of hate incidents it tracked in 2025. Earlier this month, a female transgender student at the University of Washington was stabbed to death on her school campus.
Daniels said D’Iberville High School’s recent Facebook post potentially puts Hole at risk by making his deadname public, which could lead to further harassment and targeting.
“They have put this kid in danger,” Daniels said.
In the photograph D’Iberville High School posted, Hole is wearing his U.S. Army Junior ROTC uniform, bedecked with medals, ribbons and cords representing his awards for being a “superior cadet,” academic achievements and participation in color guard.
Tara Shay Montgomery, an LGBTQ+ advocate who knows the impacted students, told The Advocate that Jonas’ mustache had been digitally erased and his lips had been edited to look pinker.
garnered around 1,300 comments and over 100 shares before D’Iberville High School limited comments. Overwhelmingly, the response was in support of Jonas, with the majority of people using his correct name and pronouns while celebrating his achievements. Commenters from Missouri and Texas also showed support.
The Harrison County School District Facebook page reposted the photo on May 17, also using Jonas’ dead name. Six days later, neither post had been edited. The school and school district administration have not given any public response.
Jonathan Blue is a D’Iberville resident who called and left voice messages for Principal Cheryl Broadus, one of her former high school teachers. Blue, a transgender woman who attended D’Iberville High School in the early 2000s, was also in ROTC for four years. She was impressed by the number of ribbons on Hole’s uniform, showing that he is active in the community and a well-respected student.
“You don’t just get those handed to you for nothing – you get those for actually participating and engaging,” she said.
Blue plans to visit the school and Broadus, who she remembers as a highly regarded educator. Blue has two kids in the high school now, one of whom will be a senior next year. She wants Broadus to understand the importance of supporting students.
“I want to get that she understands, stripping somebody’s identity is basically robbing them of everything that makes themself, and that kind of move makes no sense,” Blue said.
For now, the focus is on getting the students to graduation and keeping them safe, said Matar. He said he is in contact with other Gulf Coast-based LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations to coordinate their response. Organizers plan a community show of support at the graduation ceremony, purposefully not a protest but rather a celebration of the students’ accomplishments, including Hole’s.
Matar also emphasized the students do not necessarily want to be politicized, or to be seen as representatives for transgender youth. They’re trying to graduate high school, the same as any student.
For Daniels, the most important thing right now is protecting the students. While he was never outed to this extent, he said he can imagine how devastating it would be to have something like this happen to him.
“It truly just breaks my heart,” he said. “It’s just been breaking my heart all week.”
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