Sherman ISD trustees reverse decision, allow Max Hightower to return to his role in ‘Oklahoma!’
Max Hightower Sherman High School senior Max Hightower has been in the spotlight offstage ever since he was kicked out of the cast of his high school’s musical because he is transgender.
Now Max, a 17-year-old trans student, and two of his female classmates originally cast in male roles will be back in the spotlight ONSTAGE after the Sherman ISD Board of Trustees voted Monday night, Nov.
13, to reinstate all the students to the roles that had been cast in. The vote came after “dozens of speakers” showed up at Monday night’s board meeting “demand[ing] the students sing in their original roles and slamm[ing] the trustees for discriminating against a transgender child,” according to a Dallas Morning News article by Talia Richman.
The board also voted to let the SHS students perform the original script of the play as they had planned, rather than a “youth version.” School administrators had, after telling Max he couldn’t play Curly, also decided that the original script was too racy for high school kids.
