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Boy in skirt tests limits of school dress code

Alison Leigh Cowan
The International Herald Tribune
NYT
Friday, November 14, 2003 NEW MILFORD, Connecticut Even now, no one is entirely sure why Kevin Dougherty, 15, showed up for school one day last month wearing a floral skirt and a matching scarf tied jauntily around his neck. Pantyhose, eye shadow and lipstick completed the look.

When administrators at the high school sent him home for refusing to change clothes, he left, but also called the local newspapers and the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union. Now, nearly two weeks later, the town is still buzzing, though there is no consensus as to whether it was simply a defiant Halloween costume, as school officials and their lawyers say, or a constitutionally protected protest, as Kevin says. Since neither side shows signs of budging, the dispute seems headed to court. School administrators have referred all calls for comment to the interim superintendent, JeanAnn Paddyfote. She said Wednesday that she could not discuss details but that nothing had caused officials at the school to rethink the ban on what it calls disruptive clothing.

Dressed in his usual khakis and Shetland sweaters, Kevin Dougherty does not look like much of a rebel. Soft-spoken, he plays drums for the school band, takes in unwanted dogs and mows lawns for pocket money.

He does have a history of asserting himself in unexpected ways against a school system that he believes infringes on students' civil rights.

His earliest taste of that, he said, came in the eighth grade, when he was asked to create a political cartoon in civics class. He drew a Roman Catholic priest with a caption saying, "Reach out and touch someone." He said the teacher asked him to redo it because it was offensive, so he brought in a blank sheet of paper the next day to make a point and got a zero on the project.

A more recent clash took place in mid-October on Homecoming Week, when students were advised to come to school as a famous person. He came as Hitler. He said school administrators made him remove the swastika and trench coat, so he was mistaken that day for Charlie Chaplin.

His father, Brian Dougherty, said his eldest son might have shown poor taste but should have been left alone.

Students were told over the public address system in late October that they were to come to school on Oct. 31 in "proper attire" rather than in Halloween costume, and, though it is far from clear whether the announcement had anything to do with the Hitler outfit, Kevin said he decided then to wear a skirt or dress that day.

The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union told the school in a letter dated Nov. 3 that Kevin's "expressive conduct" was "squarely within the protection of the First Amendment." It also asked the school to "allow both girls and boys the option of wearing a dress to school."

There is no indication that other high school students are riveted by Kevin's act or sympathetic to it. "This whole entire thing was done for attention," said Vince Ducibella, a sophomore, barely looking up from his homework. Kevin disagrees. If doing it again would help make the school system reconsider its policies, he said, he would. Then he added, just "not the pantyhose."

The New York Times

Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune



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