Suspended boy should get to wear makeup at Texas school ‘like any girl,’ friend says

After she says her male friend was suspended for wearing makeup, Jasmine Richards is fighting to change the rules for future students at her high school in Pearland, Texas.

“I’m really big on self-expression, especially when it comes to being equal,” Richards told KTRK. “I felt if girls should be able to wear makeup, then a boy should have no problem doing the same thing if that’s how he wants to express himself.”

Officials at Shadow Creek High School gave an in-school suspension to the teenage boy, who has not been identified, because he was wearing makeup while on school property, Richards told KHOU.

Along with banning boys from wearing earrings and having hair that exceeds a “length touching the top of the shoulders,” the Alvin Independent School District’s dress code says that “boys may not wear make-up.”

Richards said that rule is particularly unfair to her friend, who is part of the high school’s cosmetology program.

“He does makeup every day in those classes,” she said, according to KTRK. “He also wears makeup on his own so he felt he should have the right to wear it to school like any girl would.”

So, in turn, Richards started a petition on Change.org asking for a change to the school district’s dress code.

It has received nearly 2,000 signatures as of Monday morning.

“A boy wearing makeup should not be considered any more distracting than a girl wearing makeup,” the petition reads. “These policies harm young boys by telling them that they are not allowed to participate in the same forms of self expression that girls are, simply because they are boys.

“This has to change.”

One person who signed the petition — identified as Parhis Arvie of Pearland, Texas — wrote that she supports changing the dress code to support boys who wear makeup because it’s a matter of equality.

“Why should certain people be prohibited from things when others aren’t,” she asked. “It is important for me to know that if my brother chooses to, that he will be allowed to wear whatever he feels comfortable in and on his own skin. This is not the 90’s anymore.”

Jennifer T, another person who signed the petition, said the same rules were around when she attended high school.

“These archaic rules were there in the 80s when I was in school nearby but come on!” she wrote. “It’s 2018 — we are striving toward gender equality. There should be no gender rules when it comes to dress code.”

But not all residents seemed supportive of allowing boys to express themselves with makeup. A man named Luke Perry told KHOU that “if it was my kid, I wouldn’t want him wearing makeup to school.”

Daniel Combs, assistant superintendent of the Alvin Independent School District, said in a statement to Yahoo that he met with Richards and her friend to talk about the policy. He reportedly said that “we started a great dialogue and allowed the students to share their insight.”

“As a district, we are going to put together a committee that will allow our community, our parents, as well as our students, to have a voice,” he told Yahoo, “and go back through the process to look at our dress code and, again, identify areas of concern and make recommendations.”

As changes to the dress code are considered, Richards said she hopes her actions can create a more inclusive space for the next slate of students.

“I want to leave with a more open and expressive type of environment if possible,” she told KTRK. “So I’d like to change that.”

In May, a Texas man said he was turned away from a bar in Kingsville because the security guard refused to let him in for wearing makeup. Bobby Rodriguez said he drove 40 miles to dance at the Whiskey River nightclub, then was confronted by a “homophobic” bouncer.”

Rodriguez said he was allowed into the bar once he took it off.

“I literally had to walk back to my car and rip my false lashes off and wipe off my lipstick,” Rodriguez told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. “I was so upset. I mean, who wouldn’t be?”