Bra-less high school student says officials humiliated her

BRADENTON — A high school student who didn’t wear a bra one day this week says school administrators told her to cover her nipples because they were distracting her classmates.

The Bradenton Herald reported Friday that 17-year-old Lizzy Martinez decided not to wear a bra under her gray long-sleeve shirt Monday, and school officials in Bradenton felt she became a target of other students’ stares.

Martinez says the humiliation began when School Dean Violeta Velazquez called her into the office. Martinez felt like she was being bullied by fellow students, but Velazquez said there was a distraction that needed to be addressed.

“She told me that I needed to put a shirt on under my long-sleeve shirt to try to tighten my breasts — to constrict them,” the teen told the paper. “And then she asked me to move around.”

Apparently the second shirt wasn’t enough, she said, because she was then sent to the nurse’s office. The nurse handed Martinez four bandages, two to cover each nipple, leaving her in tears.

On Thursday afternoon, the school district acknowledged that Braden River school officials could have handled the situation better, but the district said it was only trying to enforce the district’s dress code.

The dress code does specifically address or bras. not require