13-year-old girl banned from riding the school bus after declaring she’s a lesbian
(YouTube/KSNT News)
A 13-year-old girl has been banned from riding the bus after she declared she is a lesbian in front of other students on her way home from school.
Izzy Dieker, an eighth-grader at Americus School in the North Lyon County District, Kansas, said she was kicked off the school bus after she told her friends “I’m a lesbian”. She said a bus driver overheard her making the statement to her friends and wrote the girl up for “inappropriate language”.
She told KSNT: “Once I got home, my dad told me he got a call from the school that I was kicked off for saying ‘I’m a lesbian’.”
The district superintendent said he couldn’t discuss the details of the case. But Dieker’s parents said they were told she also did not listen to the bus driver’s orders.
‘I was angry’
Tasha Cooper, Dieker’s stepmother, said she struggled to get a clear response from the school’s administration. She said: “She’s 13-years old, and these are adults acting like this towards her.
“We’ve had talks about other students calling her names, and I expect that because they’re repeating what their parents say.
“But for the staff, the people that I trust her with, I was angry.”
Izzy Dieker has received support from students and staff for saying she’s a lesbian
While the district’s actions are disheartening, Dieker said she’s found support from her local community. Michael Lanzrath, a teacher in the district and a member of the LGBT+ community himself, said he distributed rainbow pins for faculty and staff to wear in solidarity.
“I really just wanted to let Izzy know that there are people that absolutely support her,” Lanzarath told KSN. “Our job as educators is to make sure that all our kids are taken care of. To us, all means all.”
He said he knows first-hand how important support can be for someone at her age and he wishes he had support as he navigated growing up and feeling different from his classmates.
