Today in horrible high school wardrobe censoring
In news that’s becoming all too familiar, a high school, this time in California, once again tried to censor a student who wore what she wanted to wear. This time, they literally deleted her from the yearbook.
Senior Crystal Cumplido wore a tuxedo for her yearbook photo. She made this decision for the same reason some girls choose to put on a dress in the mornings: It’s what she feels comfortable wearing. When she posed for the picture, there were no issues. Nobody said anything negative. I mean, why would they? She looks freakin’ awesome.
But then the end of the year rolled around, and when Crystal opened up her yearbook, her picture was nowhere to be found. In fact, they didn’t even include her name at all. It’s like they just wanted to pretend that she didn’t exist. She was stunned. “I was angry, I was frustrated,” she told Fox 40 News. “I just wanted to know why.”
So she asked, and the school responded in the most eye-roll-worthy way. Crystal explains:
But instead of contacting Crystal about this (obviously ridiculous) policy, they just tried to make it all go away and, what? Hope that she didn’t notice? A yearbook, especially for seniors, is important documentation of all the progress they’ve made as students and individuals. Because Crystal didn’t dress in a way that fit into the narrow expectations of the administration, they didn’t give her that honor, disrespecting all the years that she put into her education—regardless of what she was wearing.
Luckily, superintendent Tom Uslan also feels that this was crazy unfair, saying that this censoring was “inexcusable” and “inconsistent with [their] school district policies.” He is totally for republishing the school’s yearbook with Crystal’s picture. Which is great. What yearbook wouldn’t be improved by the addition of another awesome lady?
(Image via)