A Florida high school student claimed she was barred from her prom Saturday when she showed up to the yearly event wearing a suit and unknowingly violated the school’s dress code.
Sophie Savidge, 16, a junior at Mason Classical Academy in Naples, wore a black suit with an olive-colored vest and tie to the ritzy Vanderbilt Country Club, hoping to fill the night with lasting memories.
However, Savidge learned from school administrators that she had violated the academy’s dress code for formal occasions and needed to leave, according to NBC News.
Savidge’s mother, Holly, who dropped the student off at the venue, claimed Vice Principal Nissa Mitchell told her that Sophie would be allowed into the dance if she went home and changed into a dress.
Sophie Savidge said she doesn’t feel “comfortable wearing dresses,” nor does she “own” one to wear if she wanted to get into the prom.
“I was so upset,” Holly Savidge told the outlet. “I said, ‘Sophie doesn’t wear dresses. She doesn’t like to wear dresses — it’s just not her.’ And [the vice principal] said, ‘Well, unfortunately, those are the rules.’”
Mitchell told the mother that when they “paid the $85 for her prom ticket,” they agreed that they “understood the dress code.”
Sophie Savidge explained the incident with the school administrator “shocked” her because she “didn’t think that it was going to be a problem” to dress in a way that made her feel most comfortable.
The mother and daughter also claimed that she had worn suits to other school events, including a Valentine’s Day dance in February.
Mason Classical Academy, one of the top charter schools in Florida, wrote it has “clear dress code guidelines for all dances.”
“Any student who shows up to an MCA dance and does not abide by the dress code is given the opportunity to return to the dance in the proper attire. All students are treated equally at MCA and are welcome and encouraged to attend these voluntary events.”
The school’s website also lists a “guide to attire” that states “ladies” are required to wear dresses and “one-piece attire only” for formal occasions.
These guidelines were also sent out to parents before the prom, the outlet reported.
While they were aware of the rules, Holly Savidge said since they had “never denied her before,” they were “willing to take that risk because that’s just who Sophie is.”
“I’m very proud of her for taking that risk,” her mother said.
Though the junior was adamant about her school letting her attend the prom in a suit, she looked into court cases of a similar nature in which students were turned away by their schools because of what they were wearing.
She found a court case in North Carolina in 2022, Peltier v. Charter Day School, that ruled dress codes requiring girls to wear skirts violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded schools.
“I was thinking I could possibly argue that with them if they said that I couldn’t come in, but I ended up being just kind of too shocked and nervous to really say anything to them,” Sophie Savidge explained.
Holly Savidge explained that they have no plans to take legal action against the school but hope her daughter’s story can be used as a message to change the policy.
