Students are allowed to carry purses to school but not to class

Nov 8, 2013 10:03 GMT  ·  By

A grade school boy from Kansas has been told to go home from school because he was wearing a purse in class. He claims that his female classmates do it all the time.

He was wearing a colorful designer bag with a messenger design, as you can observe in the attached image. He attends an institution in the Anderson County School District.

The 13-year-old is enrolled in the eighth grade in the county's Senior-Junior School.

School regulations state that students cannot bring bags, purses, satchels and backpacks into the classroom. They can bring them to school but must leave them in their lockers.

His mother is upset about the suspension.

"I was a little furious, and I called the school [and spoke to Hillard] to reverify the story, and yeah, he refused to take off his Vera Bradley bag, nothing more to it," Leslie Willis tells KCTV5.

Her son was taken to Assistant Principal Don Hillard's office after he refused to take off the bag, because he felt that it was a means of self expression.

"Skyler can speak freely about what's bothering him. I have taught him this. Now the school is upset because he spoke out," she says.

She claims that he has been wearing the purse since August, and was never called out on it before this incident. She is also citing gender discrimination on the purse issue.

"I don't think everyone should be treated differently. [...] Everyone should have the same privileges," Davis says.

"We are not going out there to discriminate against anybody. [...] That's been a long-standing rule," Anderson County School District Superintendent Don Blome argues.

While the school is not budging, the Vera Bradley company have offered the family free products for having everyone talking about their bag.