An Escambia Academy High School student who wore an eagle feather on her graduation cap was denied her diploma after graduating May 23. According to a contract issued by the school in Atmore, Alabama, 17-year-old Chelsey Ramer, of the Poarch Creek Band of Indians, would not receive her diploma or high school transcripts until she paid a $1,000 fine for wearing the feather. 
 
 “I feel like this wasn’t fair. It felt like it wasn’t legal,” Ramer said. “It really did hurt my feelings. I have watched others wear it and I looked forward to it my whole four years there. Now when it was my turn, [they said] I couldn’t.” 
 
 Ramer said American Indian seniors four years ago wore feathers to the school’s graduation, but because it was a surprise to the school, no action was taken. 
 
 “About two months ago, me and the other Indian seniors from the graduating class asked our headmaster if we could wear the feathers on our caps. She told us ‘no’ and that if we did, she would pull us off the field,” Ramer said. 
 
 Ramer says soon after their request, the school gave graduating students a contract that they had to sign or they would not be able to participate in graduation. 
 
 “I never signed that paper,” she said. 
 
 The contract outlined rules for what to wear at the graduation ceremony. It forbid any “extraneous items during graduation exercises.” It also said students violating the contract would not get their diplomas until appropriate disciplinary actions were taken and students paid a $1,000 fine. 
 
 Ramer decided that expressing her Native heritage with an eagle feather was worth the consequences. Of the other three Native seniors at Escambia, one wore a feather on a necklace and did not face any disciplinary actions; the other two did not wear a feather at all for fear of being fined. 
 
 While Ramer was nervous on graduation day, she had been looking forward to wearing that eagle feather for four years, so she wore it with pride. 
 
 “I got my friend behind me to put it on my tassel, I went down the field. They didn't say anything, but you could tell the staff and the headmaster was upset. But everybody clapped for me,” she said. 
 
 Though no one addressed the issue during the ceremony, she was not given a diploma. “I turned in my cap and gown and they just looked at me,” Ramer said. 
 
 When Ramer visited the administrative office on May 29 to speak with Headmaster Betty Warren, she was told Warren was no longer with the school. 
 
 According to the school’s website, David Walker, the girls’ basketball coach is now serving as the interim headmaster. It is unclear if this change is related to the graduation incident. 
 
 “I went in today to talk to Mrs. Warren and they told me she had gotten fired,” Ramer said. “I looked in her office and it was already cleaned out… I asked why she got fired and the people told me they didn't know. I didn’t say anything, but Coach Walker said some people from Indian country were calling him and asking for a statement, but he didn’t know what to tell them.” 
 
 Alex Alvarez, Creek, a former teacher of Ramer’s and family friend who attended the graduation ceremony, says the situation is frustrating. 
 
 “I think this is ridiculous. If they took the time to understand and respect the differences in individuals, this would have never happened,” he said. “We don’t have much left as Indian people, to give a child an eagle feather as an achievement should be adhered to.” 
 
 Alvarez said for the past two months parents and tribal council members had requested to speak with school board members to discuss the issue of the eagle feather but such requests were never granted. 
 
 “The kicker is that this is a private school,” Alvarez continued. “Private institutions still have to follow federal guidelines, especially in regards to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.” 
 
 Alvarez even wrote to his local newspaper, The Atmore Advance, citing these concerns, but the school didn’t change its stance. 
 
 ICTMN made several attempts to contact the school for a comment, but none were returned. 
 
 Ramer still does not have her diploma. She said after speaking to Coach Walker, “He said if it was up to him, he would give me my diploma… but he had to go through the board to get it approved.” 
 
 See the contract handed out by the school below: ||||| A Waynesville High School student sued in federal court Tuesday after school officials refused to let him wear a T-shirt with the slogan “Jesus Is Not A Homophobe.” 
 
 Maverick Couch wants to wear the shirt in his Warren County school on April 20 to show support for the Day of Silence, a national event that draws attention to the silencing of gay and lesbian students through bullying. 
 
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 Couch’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, immediately became part of a decades-long fight over how to balance the First Amendment rights of students and the rights of school administrators to enforce rules and impose discipline. 
 
 Couch, 17, said he tried to wear the shirt last spring for the Day of Silence and on several other occasions, but school Principal Randy Gebhardt repeatedly rejected his request. 
 
 Couch said he was told the shirt was not permitted because it was “indecent and sexual in nature.” 
 
 The shirt bears the image of a fish, similar to the religious symbol commonly used by Christians, painted in rainbow colors. The words “Jesus Is Not A Homophobe” appear below the fish. 
 
 “I don’t think the shirt is sexual at all. I don’t know how they can say that,” Couch said. “I don’t think it’s indecent.” 
 
 Gebhardt could not be reached Tuesday, but the school district’s superintendent, Pat Dubbs, said he believes Gebhardt considered the shirt a distraction and told Couch to turn it inside out when he wore it to school last year. He said the principal has done that on other occasions when students show up wearing potentially distracting or provocative shirts to school. 
 
 “We’re in the business of education and our main concern is maintaining an environment that is conducive to education,” Dubbs said. “We want our kids to be able to come to school and learn.” 
 
 He would not comment on the lawsuit, other than to say it “really caught us off guard.” 
 
 Couch’s attorney, Christopher Clark, said Couch tried for months to resolve the dispute without going to court, but school officials wouldn’t budge. 
 
 Clark said administrators initially said the shirt was disruptive and later that it was too religious. He said they now claim it violates rules prohibiting clothing that is indecent or sexual in nature. 
 
 “I think that borders on the absurd,” Clark said. “I do think what the school is doing is bullying. They’re trying to shame him into not wearing this shirt.” 
 
 Couch said he has been the victim of teasing and name-calling at school, but he said any bullying he’s experienced has never become physical. He said he wants to wear the shirt to show support for other gay students who do suffer from severe bullying. 
 
 Clark said students in other schools across the country wear T-shirts with a variety of images on the Day of Silence, and most have not run into problems. 
 
 Couch is asking U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett to order the school to allow him to wear the shirt. He also is seeking attorney fees and unspecified damages, which Clark describes as “nominal.” 
 
 The dispute joins a long list of court battles over the rights of students to express themselves in school. The U.S. Supreme Court has struggled to balance the rights of students and administrators since at least the 1960s, when the justices ruled students could wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. 
 
 In that case, the justices famously declared that students do not “shed their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse door.” 
 
 Students’ rights are not absolute, however, and the courts have held they do not have the same expansive speech rights as the rest of society. School administrators are permitted to bar speech that seriously disrupts the school and to censor materials in school newspapers on some sensitive subjects, such as sex and pregnancy. 
 
 Clark said he is unaware of any disruption caused by Couch’s shirt, other than complaints from two students. Couch said other students routinely wear religious-oriented shirts that include Bible verses or other statements.
– Chelsey Ramer, a member of the Poarch Creek Band of Indians, wanted to wear an important symbol of her Native American heritage when she graduated from her Alabama high school last month: an eagle feather. But the principal of Escambia Academy denied her request; soon after the school distributed a dress code contract (which prohibits "extraneous items" worn during graduation) that seniors had to sign in order to walk during the ceremony. Chelsey didn't sign, walked anyway—feather attached to her cap's tassel—and now she's been fined $1,000, which she must pay if she wants to get her diploma and transcripts. "I don't think it's fair at all. I feel like it's discrimination," the 17-year-old says. Her tribal teacher points out that though the school is private, it is still required to follow the federal American Indian Religious Freedom Act, reports Indian Country Today Media Network. Chelsey tells Local 15 the principal was fired after the incident, thought it hasn't been confirmed that the departure is related to the feather issue. She says she's waiting to see if the school board reverses the decision and is also seeking legal counsel.