According to Charleston TV station WCBD, out Chesnee High School senior Briana Popour was asked to change out of her “Nobody Knows I’m a Lesbian” shirt by a school administrator who said he found the shirt offensive, and after she refused to do so, was later suspended.
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The Chesnee High School official pulled Popour out of class to tell her the shirt was disruptive. “I’ve worn this shirt before and nobody’s ever said anything”, she said.
However, for Miss Popour, the t-shirt is part of her identity. Betz calls Brianna “super-brave”, adding, “She is clearly confident and honest about who she is, and comes to school to be engaged and become a leader – and instead of being supported, she is being shut down and punished for it”.
Ultimately, she was sent home, and said she has not been addressed by the school administrator, whom she did not name, since the T-shirt confrontation. Brianna’s mom didn’t like the administrator’s response.
Briana says that this was about more than just a shirt, and gay teens shouldn’t be afraid of their identitiy.
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Isn’t that what school is supposed to teach you? The student handbook bans “clothing deemed distracting, revealing, overly suggestive, or otherwise disruptive”, as well as any attire that is “immodest, obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, indecent or offensive”. Of course, whether or not a girl wearing a shirt that says she’s a lesbian is a distraction is debatable. Others are simply saying that school is about learning and nobody really needs to learn she is a lesbian on school time.
