A student at a Florida public high school said she was denied entry to her prom because she wore a suit instead of a dress, which school administrators said violated the school’s dress policy, NBC News reports. Sixteen-year-old Sophie Savidge arrived at the Vanderbilt Country Club for Mason Classical Academy’s prom with a group of friends, but a vice principal at the charter school told her to go home and change into a dress.
Although the school’s dress policy said “ladies” must wear dresses at formal events, Savidge said she didn’t think it would be an issue at the prom because she had worn suits at other school dances, like the one on Valentine’s Day. For the prom, Sophie wore a black suit with an olive green tie and vest over a white shirt.
Sophie researched the law to see if she could be denied entry to the event based on her wardrobe and found that such expressions were protected under Title IX because her school is publicly-funded, but when the time came, Sophie didn’t bring up the Peltier v. Charter Day School precedent. “I was thinking I could possibly argue that with them if they said that I couldn’t come in, but I ended up being just kind of too shocked and nervous to really say anything to them,” Sophie said, with her mother saying they’re not considering legal action at this time.