SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio single mom says a school official her teenage daughter attends embarrassed her because her sweater was blue, which is a violation of the dress code at Sul Ross Middle School.
It isn't just any sweater for 8th-grader Kaycee Neeley.
"I have a problem with the way my body looks. I have a problem with showing my arms," she said. "This jacked made me comfortable."
But it's a jacket she was told she couldn't wear at the school.
On Tuesday, Neeley says, a vice principal came up to her and shamed her in front of her friends.
"She said it was for the safety of other students and it will hinder her from learning," said Laura Torres, Neeley's mom. "I said, 'The color of the jacket is going to keep her from learning?'"
Neeley said she told the administrator her mother couldn't afford a new jacket until the end of the week.
"She said, 'That is too bad,'" Torres said. "She said, 'Maybe if you keep asking your mom, eventually she will buy you one.'"
But Torres was still waiting on her next paycheck.
"I feel like my daughter shouldn't suffer the consequences because I can't afford something that the school says she should have," she said.
The blue jacket was donated by their church. Now the family is left to buy one that is black, yellow or green.
"They should be able to go to school and get an education because, at the end of the day, it is grades that matter," Torres said. "They are going to look at your grades, not at the clothes you are wearing."
Torres and Neeley met with the principal of the school after the incident, and they provided her with another jacket she could wear in the meantime.