I support the kid.
But isn't it the job of official to interpret the existing rules? And not to "legislate" from the field?
A rational interpretation of rules requiring players to wear shoes and kneepads, is that the shoes are meant to protect the feet and the kneepads are meant to protect the knees. No feet or knees = no shoes or kneepads needed. Not to mention that the boy had already played in several sanctioned games that season, with no official intervention. Presumably his first game got plenty of local media coverage, and the Ohio school sports sanctioning body would have intervened if it deemed it necessary. Ref should have applied common sense here.