CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — The color of a graduation cap and gown has caused an uproar at Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda.
Several parents and students said it’s been a tradition where girls wear gold and boys wear blue.
This year, school administrators decided to upgrade all the gowns, making them blue with CHS embroidered in gold on the sleeves.
In years past, girls wore gold and boys wore blue, but Mike Riley said the color of the gowns has changed several times.
“They’ve had black, they’ve had green, maroon. There was a year everyone wore blue, a year everyone wore gold,” said Mike Riley, Charlotte County School District PIO.
Riley also said students were told about this change, and it has nothing to do with gender equality.
This week, students started a petition to let girls wear gold.
At last check, more than 2,800 people have signed it.
The school district said the gowns will stay as they are for this year’s graduating class with everyone wearing the color blue.
