The other week,
we covered how dress codes in schools are unfairly targeted at women, gender non-conformists, and non-whites. As if to prove our point, a high school in Chesnee, South Carolina, suspended a student for wearing a shirt that boldly reads, "Nobody knows I'm a lesbian," according to WNCN.Â
When Briana Popour's mother, Barbara Popour, asked the principal why, he sent her the dress code policy. There is a section in it that reads, "clothing deemed distracting, revealing, overly suggestive, or otherwise disruptive will not be permitted." That answer wasn't good enough for Barbara.
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"There's other stuff that supposedly could be against religion, against anything else, but that wasn't listed in his comment," Barbara said. Â She contends that the principal discriminated based on her daughter's sexual orientation.
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Briana said that the shirt isn't "clothing," it's her identity. In telling her that her shirt was somehow distracting, overly suggestive, or otherwise disruptive, the principal was also saying that she herself is those things. Briana said she believes teens shouldn't be afraid to be themselves.
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"Isn't that what school is supposed to teach you? To be happy with who you are? Maybe people will be more comfortable showing who they are because you should be able to wear what you want to wear," she said.
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