Transgender Teen Denied Entry to Prom for Wearing Dress

Police were called to a school in Alabama after a transgender student was allegedly banned from entering their prom because she refused to change out of the dress she had worn for the event.

The student at Section High School in Jackson County, Alabama, attended the prom on April 6 with a group of friends.

But she was allegedly stopped from going inside unless she changed out of her dress and into a pair of pants, according to local ABC news station WAAY 31.

A mom of a male student at the school, Lesa Drake, got a call from the group to let them know what happened and she headed down there to confront the principal, Blake Wigley, about the decision. The school then called the police.

“I kept asking why. Why can’t she come? Because she’s wearing a dress. There were other transgender students in there not wearing their birth gender attire. What is wrong with this issue? And he kept saying, ‘I told her yesterday,'” Drake told WAAY 31.

Wigley reportedly told the mom the school’s handbook explained the reason for the decision to refuse the student entrance to the prom, but when Drake checked it herself, she could not find a relevant policy.

“I looked at the student handbook, and there’s absolutely nothing in it, and there’s nothing in the prom section. And this is all caught on tape by the officer that was there,” she said.

Newsweek contacted Wigley, the school’s vice principal and the Jackson County School Board by email for comment. We also contacted Drake by Instagram messages.

Jackson County School District’s student handbook does not make reference to any transgender policy but does open with a mission statement saying it “will provide educational opportunities for children on a nondiscriminatory basis.”

“No person will be denied the benefits of any educational program or activity on the basis of race, color, disability, creed, national origin, age or sex,” it reads.

There are two sections which might be relevant to the incident, including one about dress code and the other about eligibility criteria for students to attend prom.

The dress code outlines what clothing is banned from being worn at school including T-shirts with vulgar messages, fishnet stockings and pajamas, among other items.

There is, however, a disclaimer in that section that says the head of school or vice principal “will deem appropriate clothing or appearance.”

In the policy section about prom, it describes the evening as a “formal event and both students and dates should dress accordingly.”

According to the Alabama office of the legal advocacy group ACLU, dress codes at public schools “can’t be explicitly discriminatory.”

“That means that while dress codes may specify types of attire that are acceptable, these requirements should not differ based on students’ sex or their race,” it wrote on its website.

“For example, a dress code can’t require girls, and only girls, to only wear skirts or dresses and boys, and only boys, to wear pants or a jacket and tie. The same goes for ceremonial events and special occasions, like prom, yearbook photographs, or graduation. A school can specify ‘formal attire,’ or even ‘gowns or tuxedoes,’ but it can’t require that girls, and only girls, wear gowns or that boys, and only boys, wear a tux.”

It added that students, “whether transgender or cisgender, must be allowed to wear clothing consistent with their gender identity and expression.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center also explained that “the First Amendment allows students to express themselves at school… You also have the right to wear clothes that match your gender identity.”

Drake shared her thoughts on the alleged decision to ban the transgender student for wearing a dress.

“Who gives a crap about what they wear? And these kids, if they’re not seen or heard, kill themselves. You know, would I rather my son wear a dress to prom or off himself? Definitely wear that dress to prom. Who cares? It’s nobody’s business. And just like, who cares who you’re having sex with,” she said.

In 2022, Alabama passed a series of controversial bills aimed at transgender students, which LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign described as “the single most anti-transgender legislative package in history.” It became the first state to criminalized puberty blockers or hormone treatment anyone under the age of 19 and using them “to alter the appearance of or affirm the minor’s perception of his or her gender or sex.”

Another law passed that year required schools to inform parents of the gender identity their child expresses at school, even if the student does not want their parents to know.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also signed into law a requirement for students to only use restrooms at schools that correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth.