On a morning in March in the Big Sky commons, a student at Big Sky, Ace Ruiz, shared his experience as a transgender student in high school.
“I get misgendered a lot, or people don’t know how to refer to me as ‘he’, whether or not I present masculine or feminine,” Ruiz explained.
“And even though I came out as soon as I got into the school, I told all my teachers, you know, I go by he/him, I’m Ace, not my deadname. …I still got misgendered frequently, either that, or people just used my name and didn’t use pronouns, just pretended like I was just a name.”
Ruiz isn’t alone. Many trans students get misgendered, deadnamed, or worse. A recent statistic published by Bullies out, a non profit fighting against bullying, shows that 55% of LGBTQ+ students report having experienced homophobia, transphobia, or bullying because of their identity.
Assistant Principal Christine Hiller-Claridge says that Big Sky as a whole needs to be more inclusive and be better at stopping people from bullying LGBTQ+ students , but the administration can’t hear everyone and everything that’s happening. Anytime anyone reports anything, the admin writes the student up and contacts their parent or guardian, Hiller-Claridge said.
Molly Wilson, the 2027 guidance counselor, expressed similar thoughts.
“We have a pretty strict zero tolerance policy towards anything against hate speech and discrimination.” says Wilson. “As long as it’s reported and we know about it, we are able to follow up and talk with that student so we can try to understand what happened, if it was a one time thing, or if it’s a continued thing.”
She continues, “we then give consequences (ISS, OSS, office referral, etc.) based on the action.”
One student from Big Sky who asked to remain anonymous because they get bullied because of their sexuality and don’t want it to continue, shared their experience with homophobia.
“I’m open about my sexuality, but I get severely bullied for it. Kids in my class call me names and slurs sometimes, and I’m too scared to go to the admin in case it gets worse as a result.”
This student said they aren’t the only members of the LGBTQ+ community at Big Sky who are too afraid to go to the admin in case it makes the situation worse.
While Big Sky Principal Jennifer Courtney recognizes the struggle of telling someone, she does hope more people say things about any bullying or harassment they experience.
“It’s a hard line to walk between including everyone, and making sure not to break any laws,” Courtney said, noting that Montana law SB 413, which passed July 1, 2023, requires parental notification of instruction on LGBTQ issues and allows parents to opt-out of such instruction.
Most recently, on May 30, teachers were asked to take down pride flags or risk the consequence of getting written up due to the Bill HB 819, which bans any flags or banners regarding a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender, or political ideology to be hung in schools.
This bill did, however, allow the official flag of the state of Montana, the county flags, municipality flags, special district flags, or other political subdivisions within the state to be displayed in public schools and government buildings.
A few days later, the Missoula City Council voted 9-2 to initiate pride flags as an official city flag. This means any public school or government building in Missoula can put pride flags up again.
“I used to be a history teacher, so I’m biased because I think that only the U.S flag should be flown out of respect,” says Hiller-Claridge, also known as H.C. She states that even though she has this opinion, she is glad that the people of Missoula fought for the right to hang up the pride flag.
But while there are efforts to make Big Sky inclusive, senior Michael Brass said he feels like it’s not enough.
“I feel like this school is very clique-y, like it’s very you’re in or you’re out, and if you’re gay you are not in,” says Brass, who identifies as he/him.
“I haven’t gone to admin about it before, mainly because I don’t care enough, but if you just laugh with the homophobes, they don’t have any power over you,” Brass said.
In high school, students have an easier time getting away with hateful comments because teachers don’t spot it, and even when comments are addressed, students don’t listen.
Brass says, “After high school, homophobia is not gonna be as bad as it was in high school. In high school people just think it’s cool to be hateful and mean, while in the real world some people are still gonna be mean but everyone just minds their business. Everyone knows high school sucks, you just gotta get past it.”
Brass feels optimistic about his future after high school as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, despite laws and other social efforts to minimize the community’s identity.
“I’ve been judged all four years I have been at Big Sky for being who I am. (But) this is me and I will not change that for any of these haters.”
