Dear Proconian:
[T]he recent article “School’s Red Cross Club holds blood drive” showed a picture of Leny Argeles (misspelled as “Lenny”) donating blood. Leny uses she/her pronouns, but [the caption] incorrectly used “he.” This misgendering can be extremely discomforting and harmful, so please correct this usage. Additionally, in the future, it is a good idea to ask all featured people for their pronouns along with names and grade levels. Doing so prevents any similar occurrence while promoting inclusivity for trans and gender-divergent students. We need to work together to make CHHS a safe space for these people; this is a good first step. Please keep this idea in mind as students write more articles. Thank you.
Sincerely,
A CHHS Student
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Dear CHHS student,
Thank you for your letter, as well your insightful advice, so that I and the Proconian staff can work to make our publication more inclusive for trans and gender non-conforming students. We truly appreciate the suggestion you gave to ask all students for their pronouns to avoid situations like these, and we have tried to be mindful of the practice; however, we regret we failed to do so when covering the school’s blood drive.
I know that the most I can do is learn from this mistake, and I feel awful knowing that I may have hurt someone. I personally identify as non-binary myself and my own uncomfortability with that makes it difficult for me to talk about gender identity with people I don’t know. However, progressing past this fear is necessary to ensure we refer to all students by their preferred names and pronouns.
Journalism, of course, comes with the responsibility of representing others, and the Proconian staff strives to do so accurately and respectfully. We, as a staff, are thankful that we have a school community that is willing to stick up for its peers and build a safe environment for all. Again, thank you for the response, and please know that we will apply your advice to all articles in the future.
Sincerely,
Evren Centeno
Editor
