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McClintock student tells board a peaceful dress-code protest was met with warnings and penalties
Summary
A McClintock student told the Tempe Union board that a peaceful Aug. 14 protest over a stricter dress code prompted a parent email warning of possible violence, in-school announcements threatening suspension, private office referrals and loss of leadership roles; a board member asked staff to "look into that."
A student speaker at the Aug. 22 Tempe Union governing board meeting described a student-led protest at McClintock High School over a newly enforced dress code and urged the board to review administrators’ responses.
Miguel Ortega said students organized a peaceful protest on Aug. 14 after the district implemented a dress code that, he said, now "you cannot show any skin whatsoever on your torso." Ortega told the board the protest included students wearing crop tops and was "not disruptive at all." He said an email sent to parents at 7 a.m. the morning of the protest warned that the protest "could lead to violence and it could incite violence and cause a whole wide of issues for the school." Ortega said some parents did not receive the email until after students had arrived at school.
Ortega also said there were later announcements and staff actions that felt punitive: students were warned over the public address about possible suspension, some students were privately summoned to the office, and he said some students involved in the protest "even lost positions on, like, school government" for their participation.
Board members responded by asking staff to investigate. President Montero thanked Ortega for speaking, and Member James asked, "Can we look into that?" The record shows no formal board action or finding recorded during the meeting; the request was a direction to staff to follow up, not a policy change.
The board’s public-comment rules were read at the start of the item, including Policy BEDH limiting in-person comments to three minutes; the transcript does not record a staff response or a formal finding about the McClintock protest during the meeting.
