Only in America: School makes 10-year-old wear jacket in sweltering heat to cover tank top

A 10-year-old South Caro­lina student was disciplined for wearing a tank top to school on a sweltering day and forced to put on a jacket, an NBC affiliate reports. The girl's mother, Alicia Rogers, said the principal particularly objected to the shirt's crisscross straps in the back. Rogers wants an apology for "the humiliation" her daughter felt when other students asked her "why she was wearing a jacket while sweating." The mother says the fifth grader now feels anxious about the clothes she wears to school.

Rogers is calling for a change in the way the school handles dress code violations, criticizing the fact that nobody called to alert her of the situation or to ask her to bring a change of clothes.

"I wanted to take this situation where she felt completely powerless, and I wanted to give her a chance to kind of turn that into empowerment to stand up," Rogers said.

Subscribe to 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

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up