A male high school student in Texas got punished for wearing nail polish on campus — breaking the dress code — which he’s now calling discriminatory.
17-year-old Trevor Wilkinson started a Change.org petition this week after he received an in-school suspension Monday from officials at Clyde High School in Fort Worth. The reason … he had painted his nails black and other colors.
imagine your school not allowing boys to paint their nails and giving boys iss for it. and the whole administration being okay with it, homophobic and sexist? welcome to west texas🤠
— trevvvv;) (@trevvowilkinson) November 30, 2020
@trevvowilkinson
When asked to remove the nail polish by the principal and vice principal, Wilkinson refused … and got his punishment, which he says he’ll continue opting for as a form of protest.
He told NBC, “It’s really sad to me because I feel like it’s 2020 and we should be progressing and not taking steps back,” while going on to add, “And it makes me really sad because I know that there are other people who feel like this and feel like they can’t express themselves and that they never will be able to because of people like this, who are not open-minded enough to see another perspective.”
As for the school, their district — Clyde Consolidated Independent School District — spoke on its behalf with a blanket statement about the dress code policy … without touching on Wilkinson specifically. BTW, CHS is a public school … for what it’s worth.
Anyway, CCISD says it conducts a thorough review of its dress code each year and make all students and parents well aware of it before the school year gets underway.
Regarding the nail polish rule — which also extends to forbidding makeup on males — the student handbook says students are given a chance to correct it in the moment, but will face escalating punishment if they continue to violate the policy.