A student at Boca Raton High School in Florida refused to cover up her “Hillary for Prison” t-shirt this past Tuesday, and as such was sentenced to in-school suspension for the remainder of the day.
According to the Sun Sentinel, Maxine Yeakle’s garb sparked a “commotion” in chorus class — “a handful of girls […] talked loudly about the presidential election and how they consider Donald Trump supporters racist.”
The girls refused the teacher’s requests to can the chatter, and in her next class Yeakle was informed she needed to see the assistant principal.
Once there, she was told she would have to change into a shirt “given to students who violate the dress code,” or serve in-school suspension for the rest of the day.
To avoid both, her dad pulled her out of school for the rest of the day. Her dad told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday that he supported his daughter’s actions, but declined to comment further.
Although district spokesperson Kathy Burstein declined to comment on the incident, she noted a district-wide dress-code policy that prohibits attire that “substantially or potentially disrupts the educational environment.” A principal or other designee has the final say on what constitutes a dress-code violation, according to the district’s handbook.
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Yeakle said administrators told her she didn’t violate the dress code, but they still decided it was a classroom distraction.
“My consequence was I either had to wear a shirt that’s kind of, you know, humiliating because I have never gotten a dress code violation before,” or possibly face in-school suspension if she didn’t comply, she said.
In the Facebook post in which she posted her video, Yeakle wrote that she had nothing to do with the disruptive discussion in chorus class — yet it was she who was penalized. The students trashing her shirt are the ones who refused to comply with the (chorus) teacher’s appeal for quiet.
Nevertheless, chances are the school/district would prevail if a legal stink is made as the courts have granted schools wide leeway in enforcing what the district spokeswoman had said — enforcing an orderly “educational environment.”
Then again, Yeakle had a point when she told a local news station that the school “opened a can of worms”: “Who is to say I’m not offended by a Hillary shirt? And why don’t they have to change?”
h/t to EAGNews.org
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