Sindawe
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Student asked to change out of kilt seeks dress code change
Thursday, December 22, 2005; Posted: 10:51 a.m. EST (15:51 GMT)
JACKSON, Missouri (AP) -- Nathan Warmack wanted to honor his heritage by wearing a Scottish kilt to his high school dance. Then a principal told him to change into a pair of pants.
What began with a few yards of tartan has sparked an international debate about freedom, symbols and cultural dress. More than 1,600 people have signed an Internet petition seeking an apology for the high school senior.
Scots in the United States are assembling a traditional ensemble they hope the student will wear to the prom, and his family is trying to change the school's dress code policy.
"It's a kilt. It's going to turn heads, but I never believed it would have become what it is," Warmack said.
Other schools around the country also have wrestled with the issue. A principal in Victoria, Texas, ordered two boys into "more appropriate" attire when they wore kilts to school in 1992, saying: "I know kilts. Those weren't kilts and the boys aren't Scots."
In 1993, a student in Fayette County, Georgia, was not allowed to enter his prom at McIntosh High School because he showed up in a kilt and refused to change clothes.
Continues at: http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/12/22/student.kilt.ap/
Petition in support of Nathan: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?kilt05&1