Students at a California high school are angry at the facility after the principal "deadnamed" a transgender student in a statement released about her death.
An email sent by the Claremont High School principal last week, obtained by ABC 7, identified ninth-grade student Chloe Vivian Kreutzer by her deadname, despite her being in the process of transitioning and using the name Chloe Vivian for more than a year.
One of Kreutzer's friends, Alexa McMillan, said that the statement caused pain for other transgender students at the school and explained that she was deadnamed.
Healthline defines "deadnaming" as "when someone, intentionally or not, refers to a person who's transgender by the name they used before they transitioned. You may also hear it described as referring to someone by their 'birth name' or their 'given name.'"
McMillan, who had been friends with Kreutzer for three years, said that the statement was "very hurtful. You were that person before and you're changing into a new person, so you're evolving in a way.
"It's hurtful when you get called that name because it's bringing you back to how you were, and who you no longer are."
Kreutzer's mother told ABC 7 that they had recently spoken to a school counselor about calling her Chloe Vivian going forward, but she claimed her daughter's father did not agree with the transition.
Kreutzer's father said in a statement: "We're all mourning this person. We all loved this person. We're only using his legal name. It's the only name we knew."
In a statement about the deadnaming, Dr. Julie Olesniewicz, the interim superintendent of schools for the Claremont Unified School District, confirmed that district policy is to use the name that a student identifies with.
"For some students, this is a preferred name that is only used at school, while the student uses a different name in the home. Preferred names are listed in our student information system," she told ABC 7.
"If the student is comfortable with parents and guardians seeing this name, the change is made so that it is visible to them as well.
"These requests are generally initiated by the student through the student's counselor. However, a parent can also contact the counselor, school, or district office to make this change."
Olesniewicz said that she could not speak anymore about the statement, saying that the district "is asking everyone to focus on the needs of the grieving family, friends, and staff and respect the privacy of all those impacted by this tragic loss."
Newsweek has contacted Dr. Julie Olesniewicz and Claremont High School for comment.
