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This 13-year-old girl isn't allowed to be a feminist, according to her school.

School deems a student’s shirt offensive. Except, well, it wasn’t.

Sophie is in Year 8. She’s a feminist. So she wore a shirt emblazoned with the word to her high school, which does not have an official uniform.

It shouldn’t have been a problem, and yet it became one when each of her classmates assembled for a class photo on that same day.

When Sophie and her mum Christine got Sophie’s school photo back, they were very confused to find that Sophie had been photoshopped.

Sophie’s photoshopped shirt.

Speaking to Women You Should Know, mum Christine explained:

On Monday, the pictures were handed out to the students and Sophie sees the photo and notices that the word FEMINIST had been blacked out on her shirt. Sophie went to the school principal, Mrs. Young, to find out why this happened. Mrs. Young said, “the photographer called me and brought it to my attention and I made the decision to black it out because some people might find it offensive.”

Yes. Offensive.

Sophie has done some light photoshopping of her own and photoshopped her tshirt back in so you can appreciate what she looked like that day. Offensive, no?:

HELLO EVERYBODY! I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS PICTURE ISN’T GREAT, BUT THERE IS AN ISSUE AT HAND. I WORE A SHIRT WITH THE WORD “FEMINIST” ON IT. OUR SCHOOL TOOK A PICTURE OF OUR GRADE TO HANG UP IN THE SCHOOL. TODAY, I FOUND OUT THEY BLACKED OUT MY SHIRT. I WENT TO OUR PRINCIPAL AND SHE CLAIMED IT WAS “OFFENSIVE” AND SHE “DIDN’T WANT IT IN THE PHOTO” THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 17TH 2015, IS THE DAY MY PROTEST TAKES PLACE. EVERYONE PARTICIPATING WILL BE WEARING A SHIRT WITH A PHRASE LIKE “I DESERVE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION” OR “FEMINISM ISN’T OFFENSIVE” OR ANYTHING THAT YOU BELIEVE FITS! PLEASE MAKE A SHIRT AND JOIN US AND HELP TAKE CARE OF THIS ISSUE. PLEASE REPOST AND SPREAD EVERYWHERE USING THE HASHTAG #IDESERVEFREEDOMOFEXPRESSION THANK YOU!

A photo posted by sophie not sophia (@idiotsophie) on

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Sophie reached out to her instagram followers and asked them to upload a picture of themselves with the hashtag #ideservefreedomofexpression. And they did – enthusiastically. Men, women and children are expressing their right to free speech and equality.

With the press getting hold of the story pretty quickly, the school principal Mrs. Young was forced to speak to both Christine and Sophie about the situation. Christine asked the Principal to apologise to her daughter. The Principal was apparently “dumbfounded” as to why. This is how that went down:

I actually had a meeting with Mrs. Young (the one who blacked out the shirt) today. She apologised to me profusely, of course, after the local news station called her this morning! She asked me if we were good? I told her she needed to apologise to Sophie and ask her that question. She seemed dumbfounded by that. So she called Sophie down to the office. She apologised to Sophie and asked “What do you want from this?” Sophie replied, “I want everyone to realize that we NEED feminism. I want you to have someone come into the school and educate everyone about feminism. I want us to go to the news station together and show the people that we are working together to make this school and our community a better place for everyone. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Sophie is a remarkable woman and feminist. They should be proud to have her at their school.

Here are some of pictures from Sophie’s instagram campaign…

Do you think the shirt is “offensive?”

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