What not to wear? Kentucky teen's prom dress prompts debate

Current Events, Feb 4, 2005

It took Jacqueline Duty four years to get ready for her prom. As a ninth grader at Russell High School in Kentucky, she started sketching designs for a formal dress and saving money to pay for it. Over the next two years, she fine-tuned the sketches and gathered enough cash to hire a seamstress to turn her sketches into reality in time for her prom.

The result was an eye-catching, sequin-covered dress fashioned after the Confederate flag. But Duty never got the chance to show off the red, white, and blue number on the dance floor. The day before the prom, the principal called her into his office and forbade her to wear the dress. He said its Confederate flag design was inappropriate for a school event because it might offend people. The Confederate flag was the battle flag of the Confederate states during the Civil War (1861-1865).

Duty tried to wear the dress to the prom anyway, but the principal, superintendent, and two police officers stopped her date's car in the parking lot and ordered the couple to leave.

Although Duty, now 19, is angry about missing the prom, she's more upset about the school's actions. She says the school district violated her First Amendment rights by banning her dress--and she's filed a lawsuit hoping to prove it.

In Style

Duty said the school had no right to ban her dress because she, like all Americans, is guaranteed freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Besides, she pointed out, she wasn't trying to offend anyone; she designed the dress to show pride in her Southern roots.

"She wanted ... to reflect her interest in her Southern heritage," explained Earl-Ray Neal, Duty's attorney.

Duty said that the Confederate flag was not banned by her school's dress code and that it was unfair of the principal to prohibit her dress on the off chance that it might offend someone.

"There are many things that offend me, but I keep my mouth shut because everyone has rights," Duty wrote in a letter to supporters the day after the prom. "Girls who wear dresses that leave nothing to the imagination offend me."

Fashion Faux Pas

Russell High School isn't the first school to forbid a student to wear clothing adorned with the Confederate flag. The controversial symbol has been at the heart of school dress code debates nationwide.

School officials say they have the right to ban the flag because they have a responsibility to maintain order. In some schools, the flag is so contentious that its display can lead to fights among students.

Krista Abram of Tarpon Springs, Fla., tried to get the Confederate flag banned at her high school last year. "I've done the research on its history," said Abram, who is biracial. "It's a racist symbol."

Abram says people who wear the Confederate flag are indirectly supporting slavery, because the Confederate states fought the Union in part to maintain the right of their citizens to own slaves.

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WHAT NOT TO WEAR?

Get Talking

Tell students that a Kentucky teenager was not allowed to attend her prom because she was wearing a Confederate flag dress. Ask students: Why is the Confederate flag controversial? What does it represent? What other symbols might be considered controversial in schools?

Notes Behind the News

Perhaps the most famous incident of students successfully suing a school over a dress code occurred in 1965 in Des Moines, Iowa. John F. Tinker. 15. Christopher Eckhardt, 16, and Mary Beth Tinker, 13, decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the government's policy in Vietnam.

School officials got wind of the plan, and adopted a policy that any student wearing an armband to school must remove it or be suspended. Christopher, John, and Mary Beth wore the armbands to school and were suspended after they refused to take them off.

Their fathers filed a complaint against the schools, but a judge ruled in the schools' favor, saying the rule was needed "to prevent the disturbance of school activities." However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the students' behavior was protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment because the students were quiet and passive, were not disruptive, and did not infringe upon the rights of others.

Doing More

Have students research the Tinker case. Ask: How does the Tinker situation compare to Jacqueline Duty's lawsuit? Do you think Jacqueline will win her case? Why or why not?