Where other students may have thought of schoolgirl or hero inspired costumes, Loudon County, Virginia’s Heritage High School student dressed as a slave for the school’s annual Spirit Week: Throwback Thursday celebration.

The young man’s costume included rips and fake blood stains on a white-collared shirt to appear as though he had been beaten. Also written on the shirt, was the phrase “Property of Heritage High School”. Even more bizarre, the student dropped cotton all over the school halls to add a more realistic vibe to his statement.

A parent of another student became outraged, wondering why her daughter’s classmate had been allowed to wear the costume all day and sought for local news coverage. The parent was also surprised to discover that the student was African-American.

School administrators deemed the costume distasteful but stated that it did not violate the dress code and was an exercise of the student’s freedom of speech.

School administrators deemed the costume distasteful but stated that it did not violate the dress code and was an exercise of the student’s freedom of speech.

He was, however, unable to participate in the costume contest that took place during the day.

From Loudon County:

Loudon County Schools spokesman, Wayne Bayard said “had it been a White student instead of an African-American student, obviously that might have incited some racial tension. That might have been a different story; students rolled their eyes as you might expect but nobody said, that’s horribly offensive and this is disrupting my day.”

The parent, who wished to remain anonymous, stated “What if someone comes dressed as the Holocaust {sic} or The Klan? Is that then considered inappropriate? Where is the line? You are dealing with teenagers. You have to establish boundaries.”

What do you think? Was the student simply exercising his rights? Was the costume inappropriate?