South Carolina teen Dynasia Clark looked forward to her graduation at Lamar High School in Darlington County this week. When she arrived for the ceremony, she had a rude awakening: school officials refused to let her participate. The reason: Clark wore pants to the ceremony.
Clark, who identifies as a lesbian, wore the pants to make herself feel comfortable on the momentous occasion. “I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal, because we’re already here, we’re already fixing to walk but now I can’t go because of a dress code,” Clark told ABC News local affiliate WPDE. “They already know how I am, so, they already know I’m not going to wear a dress. So I didn’t think they would be like you can’t walk because they already know me.”
“I was angry more than anything because we worked hard to even have a graduation and then I can’t walk because I don’t got on a dress,” she added.
Lamar High had an established dress code for women, requiring them to wear a dress for the ceremony. To Clark, however, feeling comfortable at the graduation seemed more important, and since prominent women wear pants to formal occasions all the time in the 21st century, she didn’t see the harm. Furthermore, Clark’s choice of dress would be hidden beneath a graduation robe for the entirety of the ceremony.
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When school officials refused to let Clark participate in her graduation, she opted to watch from outside the field to hear her name called. That recognition would offer catharsis and conclusion to her high school experience. Instead, school officials removed her from the graduation roster.
“That was the part that made me more mad than anything because I was there you could have least called my name,” Clark says. “It seems crazy to me. It seems stupid, like petty because it was just an outfit to me.”
When pressed about the incident, Lamar High School officials issued a statement: “The Lamar High School dress code for graduation has been in place for more than 20 years. We welcome students or parents who have concerns with any policy or procedure to meet with administration and discuss those concerns. In the past, when a student raised concern with the administration about the dress code prior to graduation day, the issue was addressed.”
Still, for Dynasia Clark, the incident ends her high school career on a sour note. “It shouldn’t have stopped me from doing something what I have been waiting on for 12 years– I went to school,” she observes. “Everybody be happy for their graduation day and I couldn’t even experience that.”
Mister P
Dress codes can’t be enforced. The only recourse is to punish and so it becomes more about the punishment than any kind of standard of appearance.
Aires the Ram
I disagree. It is about a particular standard of appearance at such a momentous occasion. If you move up the corporate ladder and show up to a management meeting in an old pair of blue jeans and a dirty t-shirt, I can guarantee you there’d be negative consequences. If you thumbed your nose at them and told your management that they “can’t enforce a dress code”, they’d sure as hell find some other way to get rid of you, or if they didn’t, you wouldn’t see another raise or promotion for a l-o-n-g time. It’s called the ‘real world’.
Cam
@Aires the Ram
Well Well Well, the right wing troll account that always defends anti-LGBTQ bigots is here to tell us why society will fall apart if a woman wore pants underneath her graduation robe.
Please, this is just the petty bigots at the school trying to mess with her.
Aires the Ram
The school had a dress code in place for 20 years.
The school welcomes parents & students to question such things, and will answer any complaints.
She did none of the above, according to this story. She just showed up inappropriately dressed for the occasion, so the school enforced their dress code.
I believe she ruined what could have been a wonderful, and earned, occasion for her. She “chose” to do that, therefore she suffered the consequences of breaking the rules. I’d rather learn that lesson right then and there at high school graduation. Learning it down the road a few years when she works for a company that has and enforces a particular dress code, and purposely violates it, would produce far graver circumstances than not being allowed to walk at your high school graduation. I hope this is a “teachable moment” for her, and she remembers the lesson. That being, rules & regulations are in place for a reason. If we violate them, there are consequences, even if we disagree with those rules.
Neoprene
Lackey.
Cam
She showed up dressed the same way half the student body was dressed.
And lets look at that Dress code. Hmmmm, 20 years….so they established it when the push for LGBT rights hit South Carolina.
But please, you always defend people who attack LGBT people. So go on and tell us how she’s the problem.
Dwight
There shouldn’t be one standard for men, and another for women. Period. This isn’t the 1930’s women may wear pants.
sebell75
It doesn’t matter how long a school district has had a sexist dress code in place, it doesn’t make it right, and it doesn’t make it enforceable. People need to stand up to these idiotic dress codes. No woman should be forced to wear a dress. There is absolutely no reason in the 21st century for it. Dresses should be a matter of choice, never a requirement. Not in schools, not in business. Period. There is no argument that is a valid reason for forcing anyone to wear a dress that doesn’t want to.
Chrisk
I gotta go with the school on this. I hate wearing a suite and tie but sometimes I have to. It’s called being an adult.
mcs
Guess I’ll never be an adult then. I don’t mind 🙂
Mister P
She would be wearing a robe over her clothes. The school should have let her walk. This is just ridiculous and not some grand teachable moment.
Neoprene
This was the school’s last chance to stick it to her for being a dyke. You didn’t read the part about it being in South Carolina apparently.
Acranox242
Both parties are at fault.
The school had the opportunity to offer her the ultimatum of going home or organising with someone to obtain a dress to change into while she had the opportunity to negotiate that with them.
However, the school’s decision to remove her name entirely from the graduation ceremony is where they attract particularly scrutiny – it’s one thing to stop her from participating in the graduation walk if she does not adhere to the school’s dress code (and a reasonably enforceable action as per the established dress code), however, consequently striking her name off of the graduation ceremony is a grossly unbalanced and vindictive reaction by the school – she is still a graduate and has earned that graduation, regardless of whether she is wearing the correct clothes and can participate in the walk.
Cam
They’re all in robes. Half the student body was in pants. Somebody will need to explain to me how her wearing pants under the covering of the robe was going to ruin the event.
Remember, companies have lost court cases by trying to limit women to dresses. So this is not a court fight they would have won. That’s why they probably didn’t tell her she couldn’t wear it before. They knew she would sue and win.
Dwight
I can see sticking with the dress code IF this was a private school. But it’s not. The fact that they may have seen 6 inches of pants instead of a bare leg would have harmed no one.
UlfRaynor
I’m more concerned about the author of this piece (David Reddish) calling a lesbian a queer, whats next are you going to start calling gay men f@gg_ts?
Cam
Good point, Queerty has posted multiple articles saying people’s labels need to be respected. But when their labels are “Lesbian” apparently their labels are not respected.
Kangol2
Huh? You are posting on a site called Queerty, not Gayety. Queer does not negate lesbianism or gayness. She “identifies” as a lesbian, which also qualifies as a “queer” woman. Queer is not a slur in the 21st century, especially when used by queer people and a queer site!
Cam
@Kangol2
Except she doesn’t label herself as “Queer” she Labels herself as a lesbian. For a site that claims everybody should be able to label themselves to then negate a label she has chosen that is a problem.
UlfRaynor
@Kangol2 the word queer has been used as a word of hate, division and meant to demean and dehumanize the individual it is used against.
I’ve been out and proud since `1978 and have spent a lifetime fighting for gay rights, many times while marching having people scream that and other words like it, at me and those peacefully protesting while also throwing rocks, bottles and being spat upon; that word will always have a negative connotation with me and many others in the LGBT community, the fact you and others say you want to reclaim it and do so willfully knowing how many in our community know that word and words like it as nothing more than symbols of hatred often used before a violent attack or assault, demonstrates to me how absolutely tone deaf and insensitive you are, just like the callus bully’s who, for decades, wielded it against us as a derogatory slur.
Kangol2
@Cam, we don’t know what she “labels” herself; she identifies “as a lesbian,” according to the article. Lesbians are queer women; the two are not exclusive., Queer is a more encompassing term, but it does not negate her identification, however she may “label” herself, as a lesbian.
@UlfRaynor, again, you are posting on a site called Queerty. Whatever you may think about the term “queer,” it is no longer a slur when used by LGBTQ people. The same is true of “gay,” which is still used a slur. And “lesbian” and variations on that word, among some hateful, homophobic, misogynistic people. When LGBTQ people use these terms, they are affirming. Are you saying this site is homophobic? Are you saying that Queerty’s name is a slur? If so, then why are you on here?
MacAdvisor
The school is, from what I can tell online, a public school. Public schools are somewhat more limited in their ability to enforce dress codes beyond those required for public health and safety. Moreover, as the graduation pictures show, the graduates wore full robes, as is customary at graduations. Thus what the student is wearing is irrelevant. That the dress code has been in place for 20 years is irrelevant to whether or not it is Constitutionally enforceable. *IF* the student had reasonable notice her pants would be such an issue, given the use of gowns, she should have challenged the matter ahead of time. If she did not, she likely has an excellent law school.
Kangol2
It seems a bit antiquated for any 21st century public institution to be requiring women to wear dresses or skirts, so the requirement itself is a problem. It’s 2020, not 1920, sheesh! On top of this, she would be wearing her full robe, so she could have had on shorts or a bikini underneath; were they inspecting every student? Had she shown up in the robe I bet it wouldn’t have been an issue. Instead, it sounds like the usual desire to make example of someone, in this case a young Black lesbian, and thus humiliate her and ruin what should have been one of the special and most important days in her life.
galengrant
I hope she sues. When I walked across the stage for my undergraduate degree in 1975, I wore pants under my cap and gown. When I received my Master’s degree in 1990, I wore shorts under my cap and gown with a rainbow bow tie and wore Birkenstocks. When I got my Doctoral degree in 1995 I again wore pants. What a terrible thing to do to this young woman who met all the criterion for graduation!
TonyPSP
I hope Dynasia Clark doesn’t allow the small minded people at her high school keep her down. The best way to get back is get educated and come back to show them how wrong they are. These are supposed to be educators. Isn’t that what is important. Young people finishing high school and getting out into the world to make their mark. Requiring women to wear a dress is just about one of the stupidest sexiest thing the school could have done. They took her graduation away from her when she needed it the most.
boymikefl
Do they check for underwear? This is pathetic. Is this like a Quaker or some Handmaid’s Tale school? She should have worn a dress with no undies & flashed her Hoo Ha at those people and say, “Happy now? Eat my Hoo Ha.”