This 8-year-old girl was suspended for wearing the wrong shade of green

You know how on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s tradition to pinch people who aren’t wearing green? Well, 8-year-old Kylie in Camden County, New Jersey wore the wrong shade of green to her elementary school and got suspended. That pinching thing doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?

Kylie’s mother, Crystal, spoke to FOX29 about the incident, explaining that the uniform policy at Winslow Township School 4 only allows dark green shirts with collars. She sent her daughter off to learn wearing a kelly green polo, which resulted in a phone call from the vice principal. Crystal admitted that it was hard to keep her cool during the conversation with the vice principal, who warned that if Kylie violated the dress code again, she would be suspended.

“My child messed up, I messed it up for my child, and she’d be suspended next time for it, but to suspend a child over the shade of a shirt. I found it a little ridiculous,” Crysal explained.

Even though the following day Crystal made sure Kylie and her twin sister Karlie had on navy blue dresses – which are allowed by the school’s uniform policy – the principal told Kylie not to sign in and that she, “is not in school today.” An understandably frustrated Crystal took both girls home for the day.

Advocates for a strictly adhered dress code argue that uniforms are equalizers that help avoid distractions and self-consciousness in the classroom. Another parent from Winslow Township School 4 told FOX29 that she can sympathize with the principal’s decision to punish Kylie so severely for breaking the rules. “I mean, if you start letting certain things slide, then you have to let a lot of things slide, and then everyone is pretty much wearing what they want to wear,” she said.
It’s hard to imagine that a light green polo shirt could disrupt a day of education for Kylie’s peers, but it’s even harder to accept that an 8-year-old girl missed a day of classes because of such a minor mistake.

“I got suspended for wearing the different color they wanted me to wear,” little Kylie told FOX29. “The principal told me that I don’t have to stay here and I could leave.”

It’s such a shame that something as simple as a misplaced shade of green is standing in the way of Kylie’s education.

Check out the full news report below:

(Image via FOX29.)