Kansas boy, 13, suspended for wearing purse to school

By Rene Lynch

Nov. 7, 2013 3:34 PM PT

A 13-year-old Kansas boy says he was suspended for wearing a purse to school — just like the kind favored by his female classmates.

Skylar Davis said he has been wearing the purse daily to classes at Anderson County Senior-Junior School in east central Garnett, Kan., and has never had a problem. The eighth-grader said he was sent to the administration offices because of the purse and wouldn’t remove it when he was asked to do so.

“It expresses myself,” he told KCTV 5 News, explaining why he likes the purse so much. “I refused to take it off, and they suspended me.”

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Skylar’s mom, Leslie Willis, said she was so disbelieving of the suspension that she asked school officials to confirm the reason behind it and learned that it was indeed his insistence on wearing the brown cross-body Vera Bradley purse emblazoned with lilac flowers. “Nothing more to it,” she told the station.

School officials have not returned phone calls and an e-mail request for an interview. If that changes, we will update this post.

For now, it appears all sides are locked in a stalemate. Willis said she was told the local news station that her son’s suspension won’t be lifted until he stops wearing the purse. And Skylar says that’s not going to happen.

If girls can wear the purse, so can he, he said.

“Everyone should have the same privileges,” he added.

Based on Skylar’s version of events, do you think he should have been suspended?

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