A South Carolina high school student says she was suspended last week for wearing a shirt that said “Nobody knows I’m a lesbian,” WCBD 2 News reported.
The student, Briana Popour — who is openly gay and says she wears the shirt to reach out to other gay students — told WCBD 2 News that school officials gave her the choice of changing the shirt or going home.
“I’ve worn this shirt before and nobody’s ever said anything,” Popour told the local news station. When she pointed out to administrators that clothing displaying one’s sexual orientation is not prohibited by the school’s dress code handbook, she said she was told, “Well, not everything is in the handbook.’”
WCBD 2 News reached out to the school — Chesnee High School in Chesnee, S.C. — for comment. A district official responded via email that the shirt was “offensive and distracting” and pointed to a section in the dress code that said, “Clothing deemed distracting, revealing, overly suggestive or otherwise disruptive will not be permitted.”