Students are wearing bow ties at San Francisco’s Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory school today to support a senior whose portrait was removed from the yearbook for not wearing attire deemed gender-appropriate.
Sacred Heart Cathedral senior Jessica Urbina (photo above) wore a tuxedo in her senior portrait, which is an apparent violation of the dress code at the school, located at 1055 Ellis St.
Senior portraits are displayed in the yearbook and at the graduation ceremony, which will be held on May 24.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco oversees the school and has decided to pull her photograph from graduation ceremonies and associated events, according to posts from Jessica’s brother Michael Urbina and other students’ posts on Twitter.
Through social media, students have raised awareness through a bevy of tweets, posts, hashtags, photos and more since Thursday morning, which is when words started spreading about the photo and its removal.
Through the hashtag #JessicasTux, the students have organized and rallied support for Jessica in what they consider an exclusionary and discriminatory move by the administration and archdiocese.
Many students were posting photos of classmates wearing bow ties and other takes of men’s formal wear at the school today.
The school released a statement Thursday that read, “We are deeply proud of our students at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory. It is a special time of year as we honor our seniors for their many accomplishments and for their countless contributions to the life of our school and community.”
The statement continued, “As we prepare to pass out yearbooks it is always regretful when a student portrait is omitted for any reason. As a community we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that all students are included in the future.”
The statement ended, “We want to reassure our community that all graduating seniors are represented in the commencement program.”
Report: Sasha Lekach, Bay City News. Photo: Michael Urbina
