Storming into the back office, he demanded answers. With blood boiling, he began to yell. Concerned onlookers began to rubberneck from the doorway, watching the intimidating figure towering over the principal’s assistant.
But the principal himself appeared unphased. He quietly opened the school’s rule book and pointed to a paragraph, tapping it twice with his finger to get the angry dad’s attention. He smirked. But he obviously didn’t know who he was dealing with.
1. A New Start
The morning of February 24th had seemed like an ordinary day. Nathan dropped his nine-year-old daughter, Jamie, at school — as he did every morning. The family was just settling in from a big move from Florida.
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Young Jamie was beginning the new term at a Christian school. Like with most things, the family thought it was the perfect place to help nurture their young daughter and give her a well-balanced education.
2. Not Normal
Nathan knew that the new school had a reputation for being strict and was always considerate of their policies but since they were new to the whole system, there were many things the family wasn’t fully aware of.
But again, how intense could these rules be? He brushed them off, only today was the day that they were going to hit him right in the face and make him angrier than he had ever been in his life.
3. A Bus Ride
It finally came to the end of the day and the school put Jamie on the bus to go home. She had been subjected to ridicule — and worse — throughout the day and began to cry. That’s how her waiting dad saw her when the bus arrived: sobbing her heart out. Alarm bells began to go off in Nathan’s mind when he looked closer.
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Now, Nathan Thomas wasn’t a man to take things lying down. As soon as he saw his little girl’s tearstained face as she got off the bus, he knew someone was going to pay. He had dealt with too many injustices in his life to just let things slide.
4. Something Was Missing
What his daughter’s school had done was completely unacceptable – and, possibly, criminal. Nathan, seeing his daughter in such a state, immediately lifted her clothing to see what had happened and was livid to learn that she had no pants on at all!
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He wasted no time in driving straight back to the school to find out why his daughter was sent home like this. They never saw him coming. And they didn’t know exactly who they were dealing with.
5. Livid
After dropping Jamie at home with her mother, Nathan sped back to the school. With his jaw clenched and his nostrils flaring, he contemplated exactly what he was going to do to the person responsible for this.
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The thoughts grinding around in his mind only served to fuel his fury. The muscles in his forearms twitched as he swung into the parking lot. He had been lifting weights every day for nothing.
6. Straight To The Principal
Nathan slammed through the doors and stomped straight to the principal’s office, where he was met with the principal’s assistant. She recognized him immediately and took a step back.
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He asked why his daughter, Jamie, was sent home without the pants she had been wearing that morning. He demanded that someone told him what had happened. The principal’s assistant began to stammer.
7. Demanding Answers
“I asked the assistant principal why my daughter was sent home in just panties and a T-shirt, and she begins to tell me, ‘We thought she had a long enough shirt to be able to put her on the school bus and send her home,” Nathan recounted.
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That answer was not good enough, and there was going to be hell to pay. Nathan held on like a pitbull, interrogating the principal’s assistant. He bellowed, “Where are my daughter’s pants?” That’s when the principal’s assistant sheepishly told him that they had been confiscated.
8. It Didn’t Make Sense
Nathan was confused, at first, but then he grew suspicious. What were they trying to tell him? Were her daughter’s pants inappropriate? He thought he had prepared himself, but he was about to be completely blindsided.
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Was it because of the dress code? He knew that Jamie’s pants had been long enough to comply. So then, what was it? Why were they trying to justify their actions? How could forcing a student to wear no pants at all be better than the ones she had been wearing? Something wasn’t adding up. Then, the principal stepped in.
9. Their Explanation
Nathan continued to yell at the principal’s assistant, but he was getting nowhere. Then, he turned to the principal. Surely he would take accountability for what had been done? Instead, the principal ignored him.
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He calmly walked over to his desk and pulled out a file. Then, he opened the school’s rulebook and placed Nathan’s signed contract with the school and the school’s code of conduct side by side. He smirked as if to say: “checkmate.”
10. Code Of Conduct
Nathan began to read the paragraph that the principal had pointed out. It read: “Parents who enroll their children in our school know upfront that we ask the students to adhere to a lifestyle informed by our Christian beliefs.
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” But how was this relevant? He looked at the principal, waiting for him to elaborate, while the assistant opened a drawer and pulled out Janie’s pants. He was expecting something inappropriate but was left more confused than before.
11. The Offending Rainbow Print
The principal pointed at the colourful rainbow prints on Jamie’s pants and said: “This is why.” Nathan, naturally was getting more and more annoyed, barked: “What am I looking at?”
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Did this school have a hatred of Rainbows? Did the Rainbows hide curse words? He still couldn’t understand what was the point of everything. Sure, his daughter loved rainbows. So what?
12. Beyond Belief
Even if you aren’t a parent, you can imagine that this entire conversation was turning out to be a complete headache. The school staff was making Nathan feel like his daughter had committed a crime.
Not only that, rather than counsel her on what she did, but they had also forced her to ride the bus alone in her underwear and even with Nathan’s pointed questions seemed to not give him a plain and simple answer.
13. Just One Reason To Be Angry
As with anyone else, Nathan’s patience was wearing thin. He didn’t have time for games and asked the principal one last time, as to what he was insinuating. What was exactly wrong with the pants?ABC News
Even then, Nathan has expected a sensible answer, hoping that there was a misunderstanding but that all changed in a matter of minutes when the principal started speaking him frankly and left Nathan reeling.
14. Calling Them Out
“We do not endorse LGBTQ pride,” the principal said plainly. Nathan was astounded. The school had somehow connected her daughter’s cheery rainbow print with the LGBTQ community.
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He as astounded at not just their paranoia but that the school that having his daughter wear no pants at all would have been an adequate solution to this problem. It’s common knowledge that the rainbow is associated with the LGBTQ community, but his daughter wasn’t part of it. And even if she was, so what? Could he be hearing this right? And, more importantly, what could he do about it?
15. Not Backing Down
Nathan, who is a bodybuilder with a YouTube following, used his fame to highlight the issue of intolerance — an issue he never expected to find in his daughter’s school. Jaimie’s clothes had not been intended to represent the LGBTQ community and featured an innocent rainbow print that his daughter had liked.
The school has been hurtled into the spotlight. According to Nathan, everything from the rule itself to the way the school dealt with the issue was just plain wrong and he was going to make them realize it.
16. More Than One Reason To Be Furious
Aside from the blatant discrimination, which Nahan didn’t even want to get into, he was most furious about how sending his daughter home with no pants could have made her vulnerable to predators.
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He said that nothing had ever happened like this at her previous school and that while he understood that the dress code was broken, it didn’t give the school the right to undress his daughter
17. Other Concern
He hired a lawyer and intends to make the school pay for what they did. But is he right? Needless to say, this incident has also made Jamie’s parents concerned about what is going on in the school behind closed doors.
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“Now that we come here, we have all these issues. There’s obviously something more going on than what we’re seeing.” Parents who heard about the way the school had treated Jaimie were furious, too.
18. Handling It Badly
Could the school have handled things differently? Jamie’s mom brought up another good point. Why didn’t the school call either of the parents rather than leave the girl to be embarrassed the entire day?
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“There are four contacts on our daughter’s emergency card. Pick up the phone and call us. We will come to fetch our child,” she said, angrily. This seemed like a logical alternative, that should have happened but what do other parents have to say?
19. Backlash
Concerned parents voiced their views on the matter. One comment read: “They did WHAT!!!! This is unacceptable… someone better be punished if not sued. This isn’t something that’s just going to go away this child”
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They continued ” She will be haunted her whole entire life. They should’ve called the parents to come and get her!” With the public outcry, the school published its own statement.
20. Their Reply
The school issued a statement, which implied that there were plenty of other options if Jamie’s parents had not wanted her to attend a school with “Christian values.” They stand by their decision.
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Going on to say that they will not tolerate violations of the school’s code of conduct. The blatant carelessness from the school and stubborn just shows the disregard with childcare by that school and needless to say, Jamie’s parents are looking to enroll her elsewhere.