Native American student denied high school diploma for wearing tribal feather | The Raw Story

Native American student denied high school diploma for wearing tribal feather | The Raw Story:

Native American student denied high school diploma for wearing tribal feather

by Arturo Garcia

Topics: Chelsey Ramer ♦ Escambia Academy High School ♦ high school diploma

A high school graduate in Alabama is being denied her diploma after being fined $1,000 for wearing a feather reflecting her Native American heritage.

“I don’t think it’s fair at all,” 17-year-old Chelsey Ramer told WPMI-TV. “I feel like its discrimination.”

Ramer, a member of the Poarch Creek Band of Indians, wore the feather while taking part in the graduation ceremony at Escambia Academy High School in defiance of school policy forbidding “extraneous items” from being worn without school permission.

The school sent a contract for graduating seniors to sign before the May 23 event, but Ramer told the station she never signed it.