Girl in tuxedo denied a place in school yearbook - USATODAY.com: JACKSON, Miss. — Veronica Rodriguez describes her daughter, 17-year-old Ceara Sturgis, as 'a perfect child': a straight-A student, a goalie on the soccer team, a trumpet player in the band and active in Students Against Destructive Decisions.
Sturgis also is gay and feels more comfortable in boys' clothes, her mother says. So Rodriguez supported her daughter's decision to wear a tuxedo, rather than the drape customary for girls, when she had her senior portrait made in July. Now she is battling officials at Wesson Attendance Center in the Copiah County (Miss.) School District. Rodriguez said she received a letter from the school in August stating that only boys could wear tuxedos and have since refused to include the photo in the school yearbook.
The conflict is one of several this year involving how school districts handle cross-dressing students.
'The yearbook is not for the parents or the teachers. It's for the students,' Rodriguez said. 'She's not a troublemaker. She is gay.'
