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Ohio student outraged when 'Feminist' removed from picture

Sophie Thomas said she and a friend are now selling "Feminist" T-shirts with profits going toward feminism awareness.

By Ben Hooper
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BATAVIA, Ohio, April 21 (UPI) -- An Ohio middle schooler said she was shocked when school officials edited her class photo to remove the word "Feminist" from her T-shirt.

Sophie Thomas, an eighth-grade student at Clermont Northeastern Middle School in Batavia, said she was wearing a shirt reading, "Feminist," when she sat in the front row for her class picture, but when the pictures came in recently she discovered the word had been airbrushed out of her shirt.

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"I saw that they had removed the word from my shirt, and I was insanely upset," Thomas told WXIX-TV.

Thomas said she spoke to Principal Kendra Young, who told her the shirt did not violate the school's dress code, but she decided to have it removed anyway.

"It was mine [Young] and the photographer's decision to photoshop your shirt because some people might find it offensive," Thomas quoted the principal as saying.

Thomas said wearing the shirt on picture day had been unintentional. She said she had worn the shirt to school and decided to wear it on the day in question after a high schooler made sexist comments during a conversation.

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"I was just showing everybody that this is me, and if you don't like it, you don't have to be my friend.  I'm going to stand up for what I believe in," Thomas said.

Superintendent Ralph Shell said Thomas' T-shirt was not the only thing altered in the picture.

"This particular photograph not only had the word 'feminism' in the front row very plainly could be seen, but there was also some young men in the background that were doing not appropriate things with their hands. So the principal made the decision to airbrush the word feminism and the hands out," Shell said.

Christine Thomas, the student's mother, said she and Sophie met with the principal.

"[The principal] apologized and said, 'What do you want from this?' And Sophie said, 'I'd like to help more people understand what feminism is and why we need it,'" Christine Thomas told Today.com.

"People around here misconstrue the word," Sophie Thomas said. "Like, 'Oh, you're a feminist so you hate men.' I just want to spread equality, and a lot of people here don't agree with me."

Sophie Thomas said a friend started making "Feminist" shirts in response to the controversy and they are being sold with profits going toward feminism awareness. She said students wore the shirts to school Friday.

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The student said the controversy from the school picture has led to an outpouring of support on social media, with people in other countries sending her pictures of similar T-shirts.

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