Back to School

District changes graduation attire to prevent gender identity issues

BUTLER, Pa. — Caps and gowns are changing in the Butler school district: Boys and girls will now wear the same color.

"I don't have a problem with it. Personally, I'm not sure why there is one," parent Samantha Drohan said.

"I have a Christian belief that has certain opinions on that topic. I think my children should be able to wear black or white," added another parent, Robert Stamm.

In a proposal made by district officials, all students would now wear the same color: gold.

The idea came about to prevent gender identity issues from happening in the future.

On Monday night, the Board of School Directors accepted recommendations. Prior to the change, boys wore gold gowns and girls wore white gowns.

TRENDING NOW:

"The least amount of conflicts they can have through the whole school year, the best it is," parent Ron Atkison said, adding the decision seemed premature, but believes it's necessary as times continue to change. "I have no problem with it. I mean, it's part of society that's going to."

Channel 11 obtained a memo from Butler Senior High School Principal John Wylie regarding graduation.

He states: "It is easily foreseeable that we will have transgender students whose biological and psychological identities do not match, resulting in potential requests to wear the color of the opposite gender we would normally assign. Moving to all gold prevents a public issue being made before it happens."

One board member told Channel 11 the "all gold gown push" would bring a sense of uniformity and inclusion to all.

Based on this, Channel 11 wanted to know if the district had a transgender-specific bathroom policy, like Pine Richland.

The guidebook made no mention of it and the principal did not return our request for comment.

 

Cox Media Group

Most Read