This is so not my daughter.
However, I do give Chelsea Sarvis credit for standing up for what she believes in, as petty as it may seem to others.
The South Carolina high school senior made headlines recently when she fought to wear pants to her graduation instead of a dress… and won.
The popular Chapin High School student argued that she wouldn’t be comfortable wearing a dress on graduation day and simply wanted to don the same attire as the senior boys—-dress slacks and a collared shirt.
“If I had to walk across the stage in a dress, I’d be completely miserable and that’s not how I want to leave high school,” Sarvis told local news reporters.
It bears mentioning that Sarvis was allowed to wear a tuxedo to her senior prom and that she wore blue face paint at more Chapin sporting events than anyone else this year. Which is why she says she feels that being forced to wear a dress to commencement, would be a complete contradiction to the proud student she’s been these last four years.
The problem is that Sarvis was going up against a 25-year-old school dress code, which mandated that girls wear a dress or a skirt under their graduation gown.
According to Sarvis, she was told if she didn’t abide by the rule, she would not be allowed to participate in her school’s graduation ceremony.
The school principal initially insisted that Sarvis follow the dress code, and noted that in the quarter of a century that the rule has been in place, not one student had issued a complaint.
Principal Satterfield maintained that the issue simply boiled down to “looking nice” on graduation day.
“It’s certainly appropriate to ask young ladies to wear a dress or a nice shirt and a nice outfit and young men to wear slacks, a shirt and a tie,” said Satterfield. “If a young man showed up in flip-flops and shorts, and said I wanted to walk, we’d say no you can’t.”
To which Sarvis replied: “If the boys look nice in dress slacks, why can’t I wear them too?”
In the end, the media attention was simply too much for the principal to handle and he caved.
What do you make of the dress brouhaha?
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