Video of NBC news report on the incident below
View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.
Via Philly.com:
A uniform-free “dress-down” day at Charles Carroll High School in Port Richmond turned into a public dressing down for a student who chose to wear a pink T-shirt supporting Mitt Romney for president.
Samantha Pawlucy, a sophomore at Carroll High, said her geometry teacher publicly humiliated her by asking why she was wearing a Romney/Ryan T-shirt and going into the hallway to urge other teachers and students to mock her.
“I was really embarassed and shocked. I didn’t think she’d go in the hallway and scream to everyone,” Pawlucy said. “It wasn’t scary, but it felt weird.”
Pawlucy said she decided to wear the shirt after researching the candidate and President Obama and concluding that she’s a Romney supporter. Her father, Richard Pawlucy, said she was especially interested in Romney’s opposition to partial-birth abortion.
He said he recently registered to vote as an independent but was not involved in the Romney campaign.
Samantha Pawlucy The teacher then allegedly called a non-teaching assistant into the room who tried to write on the t-shirt with a marker. She allegedly told to remove her shirt and she would be given another one.
During the incident, Samantha Pawlucy said the teacher told her that Carroll High is a “Democratic school” and wearing a Republican shirt is akin to the teacher, who is black, wearing a KKK shirt.
The teacher could not be reached to comment. Fernando Gallard, district spokesman said an investigation is ongoing. He said the student had the right to wear the t-shirt.
When confronted by the principal and the parents of the student, the teacher said she had been joking and stormed out of the meeting and the school. She was back in class though only to be reassigned to another class after still making smart-assed comments about getting in trouble for joking around.
Pawlucy was within her rights to wear the shirt, Gallard said, on a “dress-down” day where non-uniform clothing “within reason” is permitted. He said he hasn’t encountered a situation like this in ten years of working as a spokesman for the district.
“It’s a Constitutional right. It’s freedom of speech,” Gallard said.
Would be a nice thing for Romney to do just to call the family and thank the Samantha for her support.