Max Hightower Sherman Independent School District does not have a policy regarding “how students are assigned to roles” when it comes to school plays.
Well, except for this time — you know, the time when 17-year-old trans male student Max Hightower was cast in the male lead in Sherman High School’s production of Oklahoma!
Max, a SHS senior, found out in October that he had been cast in the lead role. Then two weeks later he found out that he had been kicked out of the lead role when the school principal told him and his parents that there is a “new policy that only males can play males and only females can play females,” according to Max’s father, Patrick Hightower.
Patrick Hightower told NBCDFW Channel 5 that he, his wife and his son were “devastated” by the school’s decision, which has apparently caused other students to also lose roles in the production, He said there are other parents who plan to appeal the decision, as well.