Teen suspended for wearing nail polish to Texas school, he says. ‘This is unjust’
A student says he was suspended for wearing nail polish to a Texas high school.
Clyde High School bans boys from putting on nail polish and makeup, but it’s allowed for girls. It’s one of the dress code differences for male and female students at the small school district just east of Abilene.
Trevor Wilkinson, a senior, says he was punished with in-school suspension for painting his nails, according to a Change.org petition created this week. As of Friday, the online petition had more than 23,000 signatures.
“It’s a complete double standard because girls are allowed to paint and get their nails done,” Wilkinson wrote in the petition. “Not only that, but freedom of expression is validation enough that the dress code and policy is not okay. I am a gay male and I’m beyond proud. This is unjust and not okay.”
Clyde Consolidated Independent School District declined to speak to KTAB about Wilkinson’s case but provided a statement, saying the dress code is reviewed each year.
“The district conducts a diligent and thoughtful review of the dress code on an annual basis,” school officials told KTAB. “That review process results in the development of a final dress code that is consistently implemented and enforced during the next school year....the district appreciates the feedback and input on this issue received from members of the community, and will take this into consideration when it conducts its annual review later this school year.”
According to the dress code, students have a chance to comply with the policy but they’ll be assigned to in-school suspension every day until the “problem is corrected.”
Wilkinson says the school offered him an opportunity to take off the nail polish but he declined and got suspended again, the Abilene Reporter News reported.
“I have been doing this to express who I am,” Wilkinson told the newspaper. “I’ve been trapped in closed minded people’s minds. So, I did it and I love my nails. I think they’re so cool. I’m definitely using it to express myself and feel everyone should have that freedom of expression.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Teen suspended for wearing nail polish to Texas school, he says. ‘This is unjust’."