Texas high schoolers hold a protest after mass suspension over dress code violations

Nearly 200 students at a Dallas-area high school protested on Wednesday after officials sent them home for violating the school's dress code, WFAA-TV reported.

The demonstration at Duncanville High School began after the 187 students were gathered in the school cafeteria and dismissed for, among other things, wearing the wrong color sweatshirt and not wearing a school-issue name tag. Officials later confirmed that more than 100 were suspended.

The school dress code (PDF) bars students from wearing any clothing made of denim, or bearing logos. Sweatshirt choices are restricted to solid white or navy blue, and skirts and dresses are required to be "hemmed at or below the bend of the knee."

Footage of the demonstration in the school foyer reportedly shows one student throwing a trash can. However, Principal Andre Smith insisted to WFAA that administrators did not lose control of the situation.

"Some of our good kids made bad choices," Smith told WFAA.

However, students and parents accused the school of not enforcing the dress code all school year before Wednesday's mass suspensions.

"My son got sent home from Duncanville ISD for chin hair stubble," one parent wrote to KDFW-TV online. "What does this have to do with his education?"

The Dallas Morning News reported that one student posted a picture from the assembly, noting, "They won't do this to talk about our grades tho [sic]."

Watch WFAA's report, as aired on Wednesday, below.

[Image: "Angry Student Surrounded By Books," via Shutterstock]