Kids everywhere know that school dress codes are almost always complete bull. They target girls over boys, for one thing, and for another, shouldn’t kids and their parents be able to decide what is appropriate?

Well, at least one small Texas school didn’t think so, and decided to throw hands over one kid wearing a political (left-leaning) t-shirt to school.

In 2008 I was involved in a Federal lawsuit when my rural Texas High School tried to suspend me for wearing a shirt supporting then democratic hopeful John Edwards. (Hindsight is 20/20).

They said it was a violation of the dress code, which was only ever selectively enforced. My parents had my back and agreed that it was, to quote my very white dad ” redneck cracker nonsense”.

First, they tried to convince him to back down by using his football team and other extracurriculars against him, but OP really doesn’t care.

I’ll never forget during the initial meeting when my principal called in a school board member. He said that if I got suspended I would probably get kicked off the football team, and that could hurt me getting into college.

It didn’t matter, I was a miserable player and a smart kid so it wasn’t gonna be what took me to college. But the slimy fake concern as he tried to leverage my future against my speech is something I’ll never forget.

Anyway as the case goes on the squeeze gets tighter.

Then, they march in a bunch of his teachers.

First they have the football coaches try to get me to drop it, having the football coach’s talk about how my ” selfishness” means that they can’t wear Fellowship of Christian Athlete shirts anymore, trying to embarrass me in front of the team.

I’m a fat kid who openly plays Magic the gathering in high school, hit me with your best shot i have no shame.

Next they host a meeting with all the teachers telling them I’m a “problem” and that they need to keep an eye on me in case I “slip up”. I found this out years after the fact when I bumped into my English teacher at a friends wedding.

After that doesn’t work, they get a bunch of “dirt” on him, which is embarrassing but really nothing out of the ordinary.

Finally, they just start pulling in students from my classes to get them to say bad stuff about me. I was a class clown so this turns into every single dirty joke, rude comment, or loud fart i ever made getting reported to school administration.

Which then leads to this awful little toady vice principal calling me and my parents in and reading them back in front of my mother.

That one stung. My parents still knew it was bull but who wants their locker room jokes aired in front of their mom.

That said, they did use the info to put him in “alternative school.”

They used this as pretext to expel me for 6 weeks, citing “inappropriate ***ual conduct”. They shove me into the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, and i am absolutely steaming.

The Program is basically where they warehouse kids with emotional problems they can’t handle, you just sit in a room in a refurbished insane asylum and can’t do anything but read or use the computer for monitored educational purposes. You also get booted from extracurriculars while you’re in there.

I know at this point they want me to make a scene so they can punish me further, so I do the exact opposite.

OP used the opportunity to raise his GPA and start looking into college scholarships. He also hired a lawyer pro bono to keep the case in court.

I channel all my rage and new free time into my school work, doing homework I would usually ignore because I knew I could ace the test.

Now I’m doing both and my GPA is climbing. I start looking into scholarships and find a bunch that are really interested in political activism and guess who now knows a little bit about that, I apply and rip my school a new rear entry in every one.

Then, i work with my dad and we find an attorney who will take our case pro bono, which means while the school bleeds fees it doesn’t cost us anything to keep it in court.

I spent those weeks like a monk, motivated entirely by spite, doing everything i could to make their bull work for me.

They ended up losing, but not before he cost the school district a lot of money and they had to abolish the dress code anyway.

I got out, got back on all my teams, and ended up applying for a prestigious honors program at my dream school. Not only did I get in but I got way more financial support than I thought I would.

Eventually we lost the case, but the school had to abolish the dress code anyway because they couldn’t afford to get sued over it again. I don’t like the idea that a school lost money but man they made the choice they could have backed down whenever.

OP got into a great school and got scholarships besides – enough to encourage him through law school, since he’s now inspired to make this sort of thing his life’s work.

Now I’ve graduated law school, am taking the bar in two weeks, and already have a job investigating government corruption.

I’m getting paid to be a pain in the rear of petty authority, and it’s pretty sweet.

This is quite the lengthy revenge tale, so I’m wondering what Reddit is going to think about it…

The top comment says OP might have lost the battle but he won the war.

Nothing surprises me about Texas.

That must have taken a good chunk of time out of their day.

Still, people have questions.

I’m happy this kid didn’t back down.

Sometimes it just takes one person with a grudge to change the world.

Or a small town in Texas, anyway.