Saturday, June 18, 2011

Boy Wears Feminine Attire To School, Gets Suspended

I stated in the comment thread of Renee's post that discussed how boys are forced to perform masculinity that it takes a village to enforce the gender binary, and damn if less than 48 hours later the news of this situation in Washington state pops up to verify that.

15 year old Sam Saurs in Port Orchard, WA found that out the hard way.   The Sedgwick Junior High School ninth grader got into a discussion with his mother Ivana which started when she lamented how her heels were killing her feet.

When he stated that wearing high heels wouldn't be that hard, Ivana bet Sam he couldn't last a day in them.   .

Sam accepted the challenged and took it a step further by deciding to wear a dress, wig and makeup with the heels.  Shouldn't be any drama, they're just clothes, right?

Wrong.   .  

When Sam showed up at school on Wednesday in feminine attire, the fun started.   While in homeroom, he was called into dean John Richerson's office, told he was distracting students' and he should go home for the day. Sours responded that he thought the dean was being sexist.

Richerson then suspended Sours from school for the remainder of the school year despite the fact the school dress code policies doesn't prevent male identified students wearing dresses.   Saurs had previously been suspended for wearing makeup and hats to school.


As the controversy built the South Kitsap School Board contacted Sedgwick principal Jay Villars to drop the suspension but he refused.   That meant Saurs was unable to attend the ninth grade school dance or the annual school trip to the Wild Waves Water Park in Federal Way, WA.

The school eventually reversed Sam's suspension to three days, but not in time for him to attend the dance or the Wild Waves trip and he's not happy about it.   Saurs told the local media he's planning to wear feminine attire again, but now in protest of what happened to him.

But it just points out what I repeatedly see being played out in our society.  It takes a village to enforce the gender binary, and it really starts tripping when boys gravitate toward anything in our society considered feminine.


Just ask Cheryl Kilodavis, Renee,  Jenna Lyons or Sam Saurs how accurate that is.




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