A teenager from Florida who happened to have fought cancer successfully wore a shirt that read "Survivor". However, he was told that his attire didn't conform to the dress code of the school.
On Nov. 2, Tyler Powers dressed up in the American Cancer Society's purple shirt, which had a label of "Survivor" on it. Powers wore this shirt to his school, Ridgewood High School in New Port Richey.
Powers stated that at only seven years of age, he successfully beat his first encounter with cancer following his diagnosis with lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of five. However, at the age of eight, he relapsed but two years later was declared cancer-free again.
Tyler Powers told the Huffington post that during the second period at school, one of his teachers disapproved his shirt saying that it didn't meet the school's dress requirements. The reason given to him was that one of the logos on the shirt was too large.
According to the Ridgewood High School, the school's dress code includes that the logos should not be larger than one quarter. Whatever logic runs behind this so-called rule, Tyler was temporarily suspended until he had on a new shirt to wear.
Powers went to the suspension room where he was given three choices. As he stated "I went down there where I had three options: I could get a change of clothes that they provide, a free Ridgewood shirt, and they would confiscate my shirt until the end of the day or I could call my parents and they would have their workday interrupted and bring me a change of clothes down or I could accept ISS and stay there all day."
Tyler wore on a temporary shirt that the school had provided him with. The Communications and Government Relations Director of Pasco Country Schools, Linda Cobbe told the Huffington Post that Ridgewood would amend and modify the dress code and these policies will soon be implemented.
Regarding Tyler's case, Linda stated that the big logo on his shirt transgressed the rules. She also said that Tyler wasn't kept in the school's in-suspension rooms but was rather given the choice of wearing a new shirt provided by the school and continue with his school routine.
