SPANISH FORK, Utah — Dozens of girls were kicked out of a homecoming dance two weeks ago for dress code violations, but on Saturday night, the community came together to hold "Homecoming 2.0" for these students.
“I just feel like we're all Joining forces just to be just to be a teenager, which is apparently hard to do at American Leadership Academy, but we're going to do that here,” said homecoming queen Natalia Burton.
Burton said she and dozens of other girls were feeling confident and beautiful walking into ALA's homecoming dance until they were told to leave because of their dresses.
“Honestly, it was embarrassing, because you just look at yourself, you're like, 'OK, well why is she in there and I can't be in there?' And I just felt really bad,” said Isabella Irvine, a senior at ALA.
Parents and alumni were outraged, but they also took action.
“Nobody was surprised that this had happened, but everybody was just very disappointed," said Katina Stephens, the owner of Makeup by Katina, who helped organize Homecoming 2.0. "I'm a graduate of ALA and I was senior class president my graduating year, and I want my school's legacy to be one of positivity."
Also rallying behind the excluded students were a local DJ and photographer who wanted to make the night special for these students.
“I just love the support that the community is just kind of come together. And helped us realize like this is not some small thing like it matters and we're being heard," said Irvine.
Burton and other students and parents felt that the school was body shaming girls whose dresses had similar styles but fit differently.
“I think we get to choose what we get to wear because we get to choose who we want to be," said Burton, in a night that was all about acceptance.
Rich Morley, Executive Director for ALA, sent a statement to FOX 13, saying among other things that students agreed to follow their dress code when they bought tickets to the dance, and that a preliminary investigation into video from the dance shows no particular body type was targeted in the dress code enforcement.
But Morley says he doesn't want to minimize the concerns students have, so will be reviewing footage from the event again and continuing to interview students and parents about what happened to make sure the information they have is accurate.
