Texas middle school students disciplined after wearing “Gay O.K.” shirts
School district says the shirts were "disruptive and distractive" to the educational process
“People started getting rowdy because they knew what was going on. They were making us take off the shirts.”
—Sammy Heiman, a seventh-grader at Faubion Middle School in McKinney, Texas, and the designer of t-shirts with the words “Gay O.K.” on them, as reported by The Dallas Morning News.
Heiman and at least 14 other students had worn the shirts to show support for a fellow seventh-grader who recently came out as gay and was being bullied by his classmates. Several students said administrators confronted them as soon as they came to school Wednesday morning, suggesting that the shirts were inappropriate for school. At lunchtime, when administrators began calling the students out of the cafeteria, some of their other students began chanting “Gay OK,” according to video posted to Twitter. As a result of the disruption, two students were sent home, and the others were told to cover up their shirts or turn them inside-out, according to Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate NBC 5.
Cody Cunningham, a spokesman for the McKinney Independent School District later said that the students had been asked to remove the shirts not because of the message on the shirts, but because the school district’s dress code states that prohibits “any disruptive or distractive mode of clothing or appearance that adversely impacts the educational process.”
“While we respect student free speech, our primary obligation is to ensure a safe and productive learning environment for students in McKinney ISD,” Cunningham said in a statement.
Photo credit: NBC 5 DFW, via nbcdfw.com.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
