An 11-year-old girl trying to honor those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, the same way she has for years — by wearing a T-shirt to school that lists the names of those who died in New York City’s twin towers — was suddenly told by administrators to take it off, her stepfather said.
“[We] wear it to honor what had happened on 9/11 and all the people that have perished and the lives that were changed on that day,” Tim Foster, the stepfather of the Orangevale, California, sixth-grade girl, told CBS Sacramento.
He has also served in the military for almost 25 years and toured Iraq twice, CBS Sacramento said.
The entire Foster family wears the shirt — which is black and has the names of the killed written in the shape of the twin towers in white letters — every year on Sept. 11, CBS Sacramento reported. But the school said it’s a dress code violation.
Instead, administrators said she had to wear her school uniform, Mr. Foster said.
A spokesman for the school district, Trent Allen, said students are only allowed to wear items that don’t conform to the dress code on “free dress days,” CBS Sacramento reported. Sept. 11 this year didn’t land on one of those days, he said.
“It’s very much an important part of the academic process, but we need to enforce dress code policy,” he said, CBS Sacramento reported. “If you start making exceptions, it is hard to draw the line.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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