The school dress code exists for multiple reasons, including for the safety of the other students and staff. Such would be the case with senior Justin Todd.

“I wasn’t dress coded,” Todd said. “I was just told to take it off.”

Todd walked into school with a unique outfit choice. He often wears interesting accessories like chain mail, leather armor, and even metal armor. That day he wore a metal shoulder piece, as shown below.

Photo credit- Justin Todd

He walked to his first period class, Advanced Woodworking, and sat down. As announcements began, three administrators walked in.

“Mr. Kania asked me what I was wearing. I proudly announced I was wearing metal armor,” Todd said. “I was asked to take it off because Mr. Kania said that the metal on the armor could harm someone if somebody bumped into it wrong.”

He took it off, put it in his backpack, carried it around for the rest of the day, and wasn’t allowed to wear it again to school. He offered to adjust the sharp edges and put rubber pieces on it, to no avail.

“How did it make me feel? Disappointed, that’s all,” Todd said. “I didn’t fight it or anything. Just disappointed that I couldn’t get to wear it. That’s all, I wasn’t angry or upset or anything.”