Lowndes student suspended for wearing Wildcat shirt

Published 8:00 am Thursday, October 7, 2010

Winnersville has landed a Lowndes High School tenth grader in in-school suspension.

On Tuesday, Oct. 5, Mark Love Day, 15, entered his first block class at Lowndes High wearing a gray sweatshirt with the Valdosta High School colors and Wildcat paws.

Day’s teacher deemed the sweatshirt a disruption and asked him to remove the sweatshirt or turn it inside out, the teenager told The Times.

The student declined to do either and the teacher sent Day out of the classroom.

During the encounter, Day said the teacher told him a Lowndes High School student should wear a Lowndes High “hoodie” and if a student wants to wear a Valdosta High “hoodie” they should go to Valdosta High School.

While waiting in the hallway, he again refused the request to remove the sweatshirt when it was made by Assistant Principal Rowland Cummings, Day said.

Principal Wes Taylor also told him to remove the sweatshirt; again, Day refused, he said.

Day said he didn’t understand why he needed to turn the sweatshirt inside out or remove it.

Once Day was sent to the office, Cummings checked the student handbook and said Day was not violating the school’s dress code, Day said.

“It’s not too long or too short and it doesn’t have profanity,” Keisha Moore, Day’s mother, said.

Following the encounters, Day was given in-school-suspension for the rest of the week, Moore said.

On Wednesday, he wore the sweatshirt again, something he said he will do the rest of the week.

Moore said administrators at the school told her that her son could wear the sweatshirt 51 weeks out of the year and it not create a disturbance, but it could not be worn this week because of the Winnersville Classic between Valdosta and Lowndes. Moore learned of the incident when she went to the school to see why her son was in ISS.

Moore said she feels the adults are the ones blowing the incident out of proportion, not the students.

“He is not there for football. He is there for an education,” Moore said. “The adults are the ones making a big ruckus out of it. What they are doing is childish.”

Moore, who attended Valdosta High School, said she has family that attends both schools and does not care who her son supports when it comes to sports.

Day said he wore a shirt supporting Valdosta High School last year and sat in the student section during the Winnersville game and had no issues among his fellow students.

The other students in ISS told Day that the sweatshirt didn’t bother them, he said.

“It’s made me mad, but I can’t really do nothing about it,” Day said.

Lowndes High Principal Wes Taylor said the issue began Tuesday as a disruption caused by a student’s attire but became more when the student failed to comply with requests made by both a teacher and administrator.

The Lowndes County School System dress code states: “On a case-by-case basis, administrators or designee may ban items that disrupt the learning environment. Teachers may refer any student whose appearance causes disruptions to the learning environment to an administrator for corrective or disciplinary action.”

The student in question caused a disruption among other students in the class on Tuesday morning, Taylor said.

The teacher, upon settling the students down, gave the student the opportunity to take the garment of clothing off or turn it inside out, the principal said.

The student refused both the teacher’s request and the same request made by an assistant principal, Taylor said.

“The student refused to comply, refused to follow directions, that’s the issue,” Taylor said. Which led to the student being sent to ISS on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the student again wore the sweatshirt and refused to comply with instructions given by LHS staff to remove the garment or turn it inside out and was returned to ISS.  

The student was not given ISS for the entire week, Taylor said.

With the excitement surrounding Winnersville, it is the goal of the administrators, teachers and staff at LHS to retain a sense of normalcy during the week, he said.

Lowndes County School Superintendent Dr. Steve Smith agreed with Taylor stating that if an article of clothing a student is wearing causes a disruption in a class, it is a violation of the dress code.

During a conversation with the parent on Wednesday morning, Smith said the mother admitted to telling the student to wear the sweatshirt to school following the incident on Tuesday.

Smith said he tried to talk about the issue with the mother but had to ask her to leave when she began using profane language.