What would they have done if she wanted to wear a head scarf, burkha, or abaya?
Posted on 02/25/2005 2:15:14 PM PST by Mr.Pinette
GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. -- After a spirited discussion over a photo of a girl wearing a tuxedo at Thursday's Clay County School Board meeting, the principal's decision to ban the picture from the Fleming Island High School yearbook stands.
The banned photo of Kelli Davis. Kelli Davis, 18, had her senior class photo taken in a tuxedo top and bow-tie outfit provided for boys rather than the gown-like drape and pearls provided for girls. The school's principal decided it could not appear in the yearbook because she didn't follow the dress code.
Kelli, a straight-A student with no discipline problems, is a self-proclaimed lesbian. She said she was uncomfortable to have her chest exposed in the photo.
"Because that's me, you know. That represents me. The drape does not," Davis said. "They're not accepting me, that's the whole reason we're here."
Davis denies it's about her sexual orientation, just about a student not following the rules.
"There's a dress code to follow -- a dress code expected for senior pictures in the yearbook, and she chose not to follow them. It's just that simple," Clay School Superintendent David Owens said.
More than half of the 24 people who addressed the controversy supported using Davis' picture in the yearbook, some applauding after Cindi Davis, the teen's mother, asked the board "What is so offensive about this tiny picture?"
Cindi Davis asked the school board not only to reverse the principal's decision on the photo, but to apologize for firing the yearbook editor, who voiced her support of publishing the photo.
While the board's ruling will keep the photo from appearing with other senior pictures, it will appear in the yearbook. Kelli's parents bought a two-page ad in the back of the book for $700, which will feature the picture.
BTW, you can use plastic surgery to create all the parts, and it's not necessary to change the genetic content of your subject one whit.
Another reason for the GLBT community to be offended.
*yawn*
Only Troll trouble-Makers read the articles before posting their opinions.
I'm with the wardens on this one. If a facility has unifoem code and provides uniforms for the inmates, that's what they wear.
While they were within theur rights, perhaps they should have let it slide. Now the yearbook hass a full page picture of her in lesbo gear. Love unintended consuquences.
And where they were not justified was sacking the yearbook editor. From the article, it appears the editor only supported publication, but didn't make it a line in the sand issue.
I think the parent's have an agenda.
That her parents took out a two-page ad in the back of the yearbook to feature the same photo also supports the in-your-face agenda argument.
That would have been my decision. My next decision would have been to rescind the uniform requirement for the pictures. Most of the boys look silly in the tux, and the girls look dumpy in the "drape." (And this girl looks like she's in a waitress uniform :-).
In future, girls who didn't want to wear a dress, for any reason, could wear a sweater or sweatshirt, or whatever suits them, and who would care?
What would they have done if she wanted to wear a head scarf, burkha, or abaya?
Give the kid a break, if she wanted to wear a string bikini I could see banning it. She wants to wear what half her class is wearing. It can't possibly be disruptive. If there's a gay guy that wants to wear a dress that's fine with me too. It's neither condoning nor endorsing, it's simply recognizing
Yep, looks fine. Tho' I don't understand what being a lesbian has to do with it.
I doubt many girls from extreme-hijab Muslim families are attending a public high school. And if they were, the administration would have noticed long before picture time :-).
Not really our business, is it?
Yup. I guess they just like the rest of us to know, for some reason...
Speaking of high school lesbians, the 2 chicks on The OC were really macking it up last night.
What a silly school ... they let the girls dress for school like sluts more times than not, but not anything like this. go figure.
Are you talking about the school district? If so, I agree, they do have bigger fish to fry. And I'm opposed to district money being spent on such a foolish thing. However, this girl seems to be making some kind of a point when she knew the "rules" to begin with. She and her parents could have been working on a lasting solution for change.
I think the district should do away with such rigid requirements - I was going to say to avoid such problems. But then something else is sure to be an issue.
So you would agree to a male student appearing in a woman's gown for his yearbook picture?
What an idiot. This is the same kind of school administrator responsible for some of the ridiculous "zero-tolerance policy" stories.
Besides a statement like this is just like waving a red flag in front of anyone with an ounce of creativity.
The traditional style for girls yearbook pictures already appeared dated about 25 years ago.
Refuse to follow the rules, be in your face about it, try to divert the attention on the issue with a red herring about "acceptance"... yep, she's a Democrat.
And anyone who tries to make this anything else is providing camoflage for it.
Sorry, folks. I'm going to have to side with the school administrators on this one. She's trying to make a sexual statement -- "I'm queer and in your face" -- with her yearbook pic, and they're not buying it.
Kudos to them. For her sake, hopefully it turns out they saved her from doing something she would have lived to regret.
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