A student who was sent home from school over an outfit which made a male teacher feel “awkward” saw out her final year being taught at home due to stress.
Karis Wilson was told her knee-length black dress with lace trim over a long-sleeve white turtleneck reminded a female teacher of “lingerie” and made a male student teacher feel "awkward", when she wore it to school.
The 18-year-old was sent home and the encounter was so damaging she did not return to school until her graduation at the end of the year.
Her father Christopher Wilson initially complained about the incident on a Facebook live video that went viral, with more than 100,000 views.
He told the Daily Star : "She wasn't wearing it in a sexual manner. She wasn't wearing it for attention. She normally wears track pants and a hoody.
"She had a snowboarding accident a month or two ago and couldn't be active for a while. She had started going to the gym and feeling better about herself.
"Then one day she decided to wear a dress and feel good about herself, this is how they reacted.
“She had lost more than a week of school and then she said ‘dad, I don’t know what to wear to school’.
“She elaborated a little bit and said, ‘Dad if I wear just my track pants and hoodie, if I wear something comfortable, am I conforming?
“'If I wear something I feel pretty in, am I trying to rub it in their face?’”
Karis, a student at NorKam Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada, has now put the incident behind her and started her university education.
Her dad told CBC News at the time: "(Karis) was told that it could possibly make the male student teacher feel awkward and it could make (her female classroom teacher) feel awkward since it reminded her of a lingerie outfit.
"It's actually a very modest outfit when you actually look at it... I think the initial comments were based on the fact that it had lace.”
It was said in 2021 that dad Christopher was told the teacher was "a little bit old school" after complaining to the principal.
He said a teacher pulled Karis out of her class and escorted her to the principal's office on Tuesday.
He claimed the principal later told him that she agreed the outfit was not inappropriate.
Karis' classmates staged a walkout the following day to show their support for her.
At the time he added: "There was a female who was singled out because what she's wearing could make someone in a position of power over her feel uncomfortable.
"And the more you think of it, the more you say it, the more you understand that this is absurd."
He initially complained about the incident in a live Facebook video that went viral, with more than 75,000 views.
And now, speaking to the Daily Star in 2022, Christopher said his daughter was confident that if she could go back in time and change anything, she would do the same thing again.
