Hey, thanks for posting this (please repost on my band's tribe -- The Bag'n'Pipe Hoppers -- also any links you have having to do w/ this story).

I caught wind of this a couple of weeks ago and was one of the thousands who got behind it online. Cool to hear the outcome -- I've been curious.

One of the rediculous things to this -- the prinipal was the guy who gave Warmack the boot (if I remember right, this was from the school's homecoming dance & Warmack is their football team-captian) -- and the principal's last name is of Scot/Irish descent. I realize that no one's perfect and that the principal has their own ideals (different from mine or Warmack's), but it works out to a sort of hyprocrasy.

Teen Who Wore Kilt Gets School Apology

JACKSON, Mo., Jan. 11, 2006

(CBS/AP) School officials have apologized to a teenager who was ordered to change clothes after he wore a kilt to a school dance.

Jackson High School senior Nathan Warmack received a letter Monday from Superintendent Ron Anderson, who apologized for "the fact that he was humiliated and not permitted to wear his kilt" to the dance.

Anderson also promised to train staff in properly interpreting the dress code.

Warmack, 18, said his actions helped fight discrimination.

"It's just one of the walls that needs to be broken down, but I feel I helped a lot," he said.

Warmack wore a kilt to a dance on Nov. 5 with a dress shirt and tie as a way to honor his Scottish heritage. The principal told Warmack to change into pants. The decision sparked an Internet petition and angered Scottish organizations that insisted the student's outfit was appropriate.

More than 1,600 people have signed the petition seeking an apology for the high school senior.

"It's a kilt. It's going to turn heads, but I never believed it would have become what it is," Warmack said last month when the controversy started.

Other schools around the country also have wrestled with the issue. A principal in Victoria, Texas, ordered two boys into "more appropriate" attire when they wore kilts to school in 1992, saying: "I know kilts. Those weren't kilts and the boys aren't Scots."

In 1993, a student in Fayette County, Ga., was not allowed to enter his prom at McIntosh High School because he showed up in a kilt and refused to change clothes.

And while they weren't trying to dress in kilts, a few boys were allowed to wear skirts to class at Franklin Community High School in Indiana in 1997, when a superintendent said different people express themselves in different ways.

Warmack, a defensive lineman on the football team, lives in Jackson, a growing, largely middle-class city of about 14,000 people about 110 miles from St. Louis.

He got interested in his family's Scottish ties after seeing Mel Gibson's 1995 movie "Braveheart," about William Wallace's battle to overthrow English rule in 13th century Scotland. Warmack reads books about Scotland and visits Web sites to learn more about his family's genealogy.

He bought a kilt off the Internet to wear to his school's formal "Silver Arrow" dance in November. Warmack said he showed it to a vice principal before the dance, who joked he'd better wear something underneath it, and Warmack assured him he would.

Warmack's parents, Terry and Paula, helped him piece together the rest of his outfit, a white shirt and black tie with white socks and black boots.

"We knew it wasn't the formal regalia," his father said. "We wanted it to be acceptable for the occasion."

After Nathan Warmack and his date posed for pictures, principal Rick McClard, who had not previously seen the kilt, told the student he had to go change. Warmack refused a few times and said the outfit was recognizing his heritage.

Warmack alleges McClard told him: "Well, this is my dance, and I'm not going to have students coming into it looking like clowns." McClard later said he had no recollection of saying that, Warmack's dad said. The principal did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The school district's superintendent, Ron Anderson, said McClard has the authority under the district's dress code policy to judge appropriate dress for extracurricular activities, including dances.

"It's mainly to protect from the possibility of a disruption or something that could be viewed as a disruption," Anderson said.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/20...02822.shtml

Student receives apology, will wear his kilt to prom
By BETSY TAYLOR
The Associated Press

It appears the great kilt debate in southeast Missouri has come to a close.

"Everything turned out exactly the way we were hoping," said the student's father, Terry Warmack.

"It ended up going further than we anticipated, but we're thankful to the school board for how things went," he said.

A letter dated Jan. 9 from superintendent Ron Anderson offered an apology to the student on behalf of the district, the school board and administrators, including McClard, for "the fact that he was humiliated and not permitted to wear his kilt to the Silver Arrow dance." McClard did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The next printing of the Jackson High School handbook will note that enforcement of the dress code is "without reference to race, color or national origin."

The letter, which the Warmacks signed, also states the family agrees not to file legal action related to the matter.

Nathan wore his kilt to the school board meeting, as did his lawyer from North Carolina, Kirk Lyons.

A member of a Scottish heritage organization, the Clan Gunn Society of North America, Beth Gardner, also attended to support Warmack. The Texas resident started an Internet petition on Warmack's behalf that drew more than 11,000 signatures.

Warmack plans to wear his kilt again to his school prom, and Scottish groups are working to provide him with an entire outfit of formal Scottish dress. Several of the donated pieces are being handmade by Scots around the nation.

Terry Warmack said he came away from the meeting convinced that school officials will protect against discrimination based on national origin.

Terry Warmack said he didn't think too much had been made of the matter. "I don't believe it's blowing something out of proportion if you're fighting for something you believe is a right," he said.