A group of students at Vernon Secondary School (VSS) are rallying around a classmate who they feel was targeted by a photographer for wearing pink lipstick in his school photo.
“I was told I had to wipe it off and we questioned why,” explains student Adam Bade surrounded by friends. “It caught me off guard completely.”
“We were eventually told ‘He’s a boy, he can’t wear makeup',” explains his best friend Joel Himmelspach. “Whereas I was wearing pretty much all guy clothes and I was allowed because I am a girl. That is gender discrimination and that is not right.”
The teens say they are not trying to point fingers or disrespect the photographer, but feel they need to raise awareness about the issue.
“Everyone is trying to oppress us and we can’t express ourselves the way we want to in school,” says Himmelspach.
“We need to feel safe at school, we need to feel like it is OK to be ourselves,” adds Bade.
The school principal says Bade was unfortunately lumped together with a group of students who were purposely dressed inappropriately for the shoot and disrespected the photographer.
“The sad part of it is that there were a couple kids who were dressing the way they normally dress, and they got clumped together with that,” explains Principal Malcolm Reid.
“I feel terrible about it, it was an unfortunate incident that left a couple students, because of the poor actions of a large group of students, feeling sad when they left the school and upset.”
Despite the school’s explanation, the group of young equality advocates feel their friend was treated unfairly, regardless of the other students poor antics
“I respect the fact that students were being disrespectful to them, but I am not OK with the fact that they said, ‘He’s a guy [Bade], he can’t wear makeup.' She [Himmelspach] is a girl so she can dress like a guy, but they are saying because he is a guy he can’t do what he wants...but a girl can do what she wants, it's not right. It is a double standard,” shares an impassioned Emma Massey.
Principal Reid stands behind the photographers however saying he has worked with them for years and he is certain there was no purposeful discrimination
“There was frustration there I think in dealing with some kids that were not behaving appropriately and the unfortunate thing is a couple of the students were caught in that, it was an honest mistake,” says Reid who notes the group of teens hurt by this are amazing students and leaders in the school.
The students tell Castanet they will continue to fight for equality at their school and will work to ensure there is a safe environment for all students.
“What is going to happen if we speak out and say we believe in equality? People are going to realize you know what I can do this; I am comfortable with who I am, because they should. You should feel comfortable with who you are, there is nothing wrong with who you are,” adds Massey.
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