Why 2 Teen Boys Who Wore Dresses To Texas School Got Suspensions

MELISSA, TX — The hem of the simple black shift dress rested a few inches above the knee, just as the Melissa High School dress regulations said it should. It was sleeveless, but high-necked and not a bit revealing. Still, the student who wore it got a two-day in-school suspension because the ensemble made people look.

The student is a he. Rodney Dimasso, 18, said he just wore the dress for no particular reason other than that he wanted to. Classmate Chris Swkyert, 17, also went to school wearing a dress — a black and white peasant-type dress with short, puffy sleeves and a boat neck.l. He was suspended, too.

High school Principal Kenneth Wooten did not immediately return Patch’s request for comment, but as Dimasso relates it, the administrator caught up with him the hallway, marched him to office and peppered him with questions.

“He was asking me why I wore the dress, and I told him because I wanted to,” Dimasso told Yahoo Lifestyle. “He said it’s a distraction and told me I am going to have two days of in-school suspension.”

The suspensions at the high school in Melissa, a town of about 8,400 located about 40 miles north of Dallas, intersect with a youth-led social revolt sweeping the country. Kids are demanding change on a range of fronts, from stricter gun laws after deadly school shootings to more inclusive school policies that embrace the reality of gender fluidity — an issue some say goes to the heart of what happened at Melissa High School.

Were the students disciplined because they caused a stir, they wonder, or because they were males who dared to wear dresses?

The handbook is clear about what dresses will do at school and what won’t, and that “personal dress and grooming standards” are a matter to be decided to students and their parents or guardians. It doesn’t say boys can’t wear dresses. Dimasso said his dress followed the dress code to the letter: “Shorts and skirts must be no shorter than 3 inches above the knee on any side.”

Given the chance to change out of the dress and avoid suspension, Dimasso instead argued his case. Actually, he said, the dress met the dress code down to the letter.

The school rested its case on the section of the dress code that bans “inappropriately worn or distracting clothing,” to include “too-tight tops or pants, Lycra or Spandex.”

Tell Us: What do you think? Was the school right in discipling the students, or should they have let it go? Did the students push the envelope too far? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Dimasso and Swkyert agree there was a distraction alright, but they say the administration caused it. It spread through the Melissa High hallways like a Texas brush fire. Students cried foul on the megaphone of social media.

“It’s 2018 y’all,” student Russell Young tweeted with a video that shows Wooten herding Swkyert to the office. “Wow, this is ridiculous,” Young says as the video stops.

If Patch hears back from Melissa High School officials, this story will be updated.

File photo via Shutterstock / Mr Doomits