Beaufort High principal responds to students' dress-code rant
This story was updated Nov. 3, 2015, to update the included graph with new information.
A Beaufort High School student's diatribe against an alleged dress code violation reached thousands of people on social media just hours after she said a skirt landed her in in-school suspension.
Carey Burgess, who wrote on Facebook that she is Beaufort High's student body president, said a staff member who saw her walking in the hall Tuesday morning told her that her khaki skirt was "too short" and gave her an in-school suspension.
"Thank you for bringing me to tears in front of my friends and classmates because you do not have the decency to pull me aside and explain the problem. Then again, I did not have the decency to put on real clothes today," Burgess wrote.
Today, I wore this outfit to Beaufort High School. About 20 minutes into the day, my friend and I were excused from...
Posted by Carey Burgess on Tuesday, October 27, 2015
If your device doesn't display Burgess' post, click or tap here.
By 2 p.m. Wednesday, a day after she took to Facebook, Burgess' words and a picture of her outfit had garnered about 45 comments, 300 likes and 2,100 shares. Reached Wednesday afternoon, she said she has been accused of breaking dress code several times before for wearing the same striped sweater she wore with the skirt Tuesday, corduroy pants, skinny pants and navy sweaters.
"I wore the sweater (again) because the dress code is so shaky -- some days it's OK, other days they'll tell me to take it off," said Burgess, 17.
While she admitted she has been at fault in some of the instances, Burgess stressed she is speaking out not only against the school's enforcement but sexist comments and jokes by some male students and staff.
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
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This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Beaufort High principal responds to students' dress-code rant."