OP/ED: Dead for a reason

IT’S TIME TO STOP DEADNAMING STUDENTS

Walking into class and seeing a substitute teacher is absolutely terrifying as a trans student. Some teachers say they give a certain list to call out when taking attendance instead of the names on Skyward, yet substitutes often use the Skyward list anyway. I've had peers who have to talk to substitutes before class even starts to let them know about their name situation, and they still say the Adrian Subaykan wrong name. HAWKEYE STAFF Within the first couple weeks of school, I had a substitute teacher for my advisory class. Being deadnamed in front of peers that know you by your preferred name is devastating. Having to worry about whether people will see me differently because of it or if transphobes will use it against me terrifies me. Dreading what was coming, I knew she would call out my deadname, and I’ve always tried to get it over with quickly. However, having such a unique deadname, I’m almost always asked irritating questions revolving around my ethnicity, nationality or pronunciation of the name, and I hate dealing with it.

Many trans students desperately want to get their names changed in Skyward, but can’t due to transphobia expressed in our homes. There are teachers who go out of their way to get these substitutes to say the right name by giving them another list of preferred names to use instead, but they almost never use it. It’s a problem that needs to be fixed. There are so many trans students with similar experiences here at Terrace. It would be nice if more substitute teachers could put in a little bit of extra effort to read out our preferred names instead of embarrassing us in front of our peers.

The time our teachers put in to give us the best possible experience is thrown out the window when a substitute teacher decides to ignore the part of their notes where it says to call out from the seating chart or a separate list they made.

“There are seating charts for each period. To avoid deadnaming students and mispronouncing their names please refer to the seating chart and mark all empty spaces absent,” Angelo Comeaux, the photography, graphic arts, film and video teacher, has written in his attendance notes for substi-

ADRIAN KNOWLTON | HAWKEYE tutes.

In the first Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) meeting this year, a student in one of Comeaux’s classes shared that they’d already had a substitute that did not comply and deadnamed them.

Jennifer Widrig-Hodges, the adviser of the GSA club, has been trying to encourage other teachers to take attendance with seating charts. Her chart consists of every students’ preferred names and last names with their pronouns underneath. To prevent confusion or mix-ups, she has each name written in pencil instead of typed out.

History teacher Erin Grambush also gives her substitutes the correct list of names, written out by the students to ensure their preferred names are included and then transferred to a typed version. Grambush spoke to me personally after she had a substitute to ask if the teacher deadnamed me.

Sophomore Faye Sandstrom has also had the same experience with name issues. In their experience, substitutes will ask students to correct them if they have the wrong name or pronunciation, but they don’t see a point in correcting them because there’s a good chance they would forget.

There’s multiple methods of taking attendance that takes pressure off students and is more convenient, including calling last names only. I’ve had a few teachers, including a substitute, who did this and would then ask students’ preferred names after calling out their last. Another strategy that I’ve seen a few teachers use is to go up to students individually. When this happens, I tell them my last name and they almost always ask if I have a preferred name. H

TRUE CRIME

CAYLEE ANTHONY: JUSTICE NOT SERVED IN THIS TRAGIC CASE

Tuesday, July 15, 2008. 911 received a call from Cindy Anthony, Casey Anthony’s mother, reporting her daughter on suspicion that she had stolen a car and money from the family. This was the start of the Casey Anthony case, Kaitlyn Miller where she would OP/ED EDITOR soon be taken to court for the accusation that she had killed her daughter, 2-year-old Caylee Anthony.

After the police received the first call, Cindy called in again after hearing from her daughter. Casey claimed that Caylee had been kidnapped by her nanny, Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez. At this point, Caylee had been missing for 31 days and Casey had only just then brought attention to the supposed kidnapping. The problem with this faulty accusation is that “Zanny the nanny,” as nicknamed by Casey, had never babysat Caylee, or even existed at all. Casey had made up the story and never addressed why she lied.

In the following months, a police search began in hopes of finding Caylee. While looking into the details of her disappearance, they stumbled upon interesting information from Casey’s past: she had seven criminal counts including first-degree murder, for which she had pleaded not guilty.

Eventually, 2-year-old Caylee Anthony was found dead. Her remains were wrapped in a blanket inside of a laundry bag and dumped in a wooded area near the family home. This was devastating. About two years after the initial findings, Casey was finally brought to trial in the case of Anthony v. State, where she was being tried for first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, and four counts of false information to police.

Evidence that came out after Casey’s conviction also became publicly available. Forensic evidence results came back from the car Casey had stolen from her parents. It showed that a hair strand found in the trunk was microscopically similar to one found on Caylee’s brush, along with characteristics of decomposition.

Considering the trial and evidence compounding against Casey, it seemed that she was clearly guilty of the murder of her child and would be locked up for a fair amount of time, but she wasn’t. Casey Anthony was sentenced to only one year in county jail and $1,000 in fines for four misdemeanor charges. How did this happen?

When reviewing Casey’s court trial, there is an obvious difference between how the prosecution attempted to convince the jury she was guilty and how the defense worked to clear Casey of the many charges. Jose Angel Baez, a skilled criminal defense lawyer, was defending Casey Anthony. He was so persuasive, in fact, that he convinced the jury she was innocent and got Casey out of conviction. It was clear that Drane Burdick, the prosecuting attorney, believed it would be an open-and-shut, one-sided trial. With media coverage and evidence stacked against Casey, who could blame her? If it were a different lawyer defending Casey, the prosecution’s presentation would likely have worked.

He wasn’t just any lawyer, however. Baez’s skill was evident throughout the trial and from his track record of representing high-profile defendants, such as Aaron Hernandez, Katelyn Roman and Harvey Weinstein. His ability to subtly appeal to the jury’s emotions was outstanding, with a strong opening statement and counterargument blaming Caylee’s death on an accidental drowning in the family pool. He did an exceptional job creating doubt within the jury, and ultimately placed the blame of the trial on Casey Anthony’s father, George Anthony. Even with barely any physical evidence to support his argument, through manipulative techniques and a weak prosecution, Baez won over the jury. This left Casey Anthony with a short sentence and lenience that should have never been rewarded to her.

It’s astonishing how impactful persuasion and manipulative tactics can be, and no one is exempt. Even a jury in a high-profile case, the pressure of the whole nation expecting them to be unbiased, bought into the emotional arguments that Baez had used. It’s so important for people to take a step back and be able to identify and separate facts from emotions, especially in a situation where judgment makes such a difference. To this day, true justice for Caylee Anthony, a toddler with her entire life ripped away from her, has never been served. H