A Florida high school student said she was made to “move around” in front of an adult teacher and told to put plasters over her nipples after choosing not to wear a bra to school.
Lizzy Martinez, 17, wore a long-sleeved grey shirt with no bra underneath to Braden River High last Monday. A few hours into classes, she was summoned to the office of school dean Violeta Velazquez and told that her lack of bra was “distracting” to other students.
A photo of the offending ensemble taken by Martinez’s mother, Kari Knop, shows the high schooler in a loose-fitting dark grey shirt.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
“I was in shock that it was such a big deal that I wasn't wearing a bra,” Martinez told BuzzFeed News. “Most days I don't wear one.”
“They had me put on a second shirt and then stand up and, like, move and jump around to see how much my breasts moved,” she said. “I was mortified.”
Martinez was then sent to the nurse's office and given sticking plasters to cover her nipples.
“I just went to the bathroom and cried,” she said.
The teenager’s account of the humiliating incident, which she shared on Twitter, quickly spread online:
Martinez says she plans to continue going to school bra-less in protest of the school district’s dress code.
In a statement released on Thursday, the school district “acknowledged that Braden River officials could have handled the situation better,” the Bradenton Herald reports, but insisted that school staff “were only trying to enforce the district's dress code”.
