Cobb Trans Student Has Preferred Name Announced At Graduation

EAST COBB, GA — Even though a Cobb County transgender student hasn’t yet had his name legally changed, Pope High School honored his wishes and announced his preferred name during Wednesday night’s graduation ceremony.

Graduating senior Soren Tucker, who is transgender, originally had asked only that his name be announced correctly, not that his diploma be changed.

"In general for trans people, the name is something that’s very important because it’s very personal and it’s for many people, the first step towards sort of affirming your identity,” Tucker said to WAGA-TV in Atlanta.

Cobb County school officials initially declined.

“For any student, for all official school business, our schools use our students' legal names,” a spokesperson for the district said in a statement to news media last week.

But after Lily Smith, a fellow Pope senior, mounted an online petition that drew national attention, the school district relented.

"The Pope principal had the opportunity to speak with the student (Tucker) and the student's parent for the first time yesterday,” a district spokesperson said to Patch in an email Wednesday afternoon. “They had a great conversation and the student and parent's preferences were taken into account during Pope's graduation ceremony this evening.”

The district spokesperson did not mention the petition, which by Wednesday had almost 21,000 signatures and counting. On Monday, it had only about 17,500 signatures.

“While official school business requires the use of a student's legal name, all of our schools take student and family preference into account during informal school activities,” the spokesperson told Patch.

This squares with how Tucker had been identified by his preferred name in the yearbook, on playbills for musicals and on awards, according to WAGA-TV in Atlanta.

Even before the district made its decision, Smith told the Atlanta news station that the response to the petition proved their point.

“We have proven that there are thousands and thousands of people that are behind him and that support him and know that this is the right thing to do,” Smith said.

Read the story on WAGA-TV's website.