Summer, a North Carolina teen, was allegedly threatened to be detained and then was banned from her high school graduation for wearing a shirt with a scooped neckline that showed the tips of her shoulders.
Even after covering up with a friend’s jacket, the Hickory Ridge High School senior was requested to change in a control room for supposedly violating the school’s dress code. When the teen wouldn’t comply, the principal contacted her mother, who couldn’t be reached. After lunch, while Summer was in the auditorium with her friends, the principal and school officer dismissed everyone excluding her.
‘ was within five feet of me, he had his hand on his gun. said “I’m gonna give you an ultimatum. We have tried to call your mother. You either come with me to the control room to change your shirt or we will arrest you,” ‘ Summer told WCNC.
ok so this young lady, an HONORS student with MULTIPLE scholarships got suspended basically for the rest of her senior year because of this: pic.twitter.com/E264srpJCO
— curly aliyah (@curlyaliyah) May 21, 2017
The principal ordered the officer to arrest her and that’s when the mother called back calming down the situation. The honor student on a pre-med track was given a 10-day suspension including no partake in senior activities— even her graduation ceremony.
“It’s just sad because I worked so hard for four years to walk across that stage. We have drug dealers walking across that stage, we have sex offenders walking across that stage and then the 4.4 student who showed her shoulders can’t,” she said.
Hickory Ridge High School—who cited the suspension as insubordination, not a dress code violation—made headlines in 2016 for sending 46 female students to the principals office for wearing leggings with shirts that weren’t long enough.