Teen's Trojan Man Costume Banned from School

A 17-year-old high school senior created quite a flap Tuesday when he chose to arrive at Orlando’s Dr. Phillips High School wearing a Trojan Man costume for the school’s Spirit Week character day celebration.

The costume Jack Englund donned was complete with a condom wrapper and red cape. While the teen said he wanted to raise awareness about safe sex, school officials didn’t see it that way.

District spokeswoman Kathy Marsh told the Orlando Sentinel that schools can stop students from wearing anything that could create “an undue disruption to the normal order of classroom business.” She went on to say that sexual wording and graphics are banned by the student dress code.

Considering those points, Englund was told his costume was a no-go for Spirit Week. If he wanted to stay in classes, he’d have to take it off.

First amendment attorney Larry Walter told WFTV the banning may have gone too far.

“There is a right to express yourself, even as a student,” Walters told the station. “Students don’t have to leave their first amendment rights at the schoolhouse door.”

Englund told Click Orlando his intention was to raise awareness about teen sex and the need for protection. The school, he said, just didn’t see it that was and was quick to take action. Englund was only on campus for a few minutes Tuesday morning before he was sent to the office.

Courtesy of the negative publicity Englund’s message has managed to get out, he told Bay News 9.

“It’s not the way I would have liked to get the message out there under such negative circumstances with the school administration,” Englund told the station. “But in the long run it probably does reach more people.”

What are your thoughts on this? Did the teen’s costume go too far, or were school officials wrong to ban it? Tell us by commenting below!

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