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Changes coming to Elyria High School graduation robes to create unity principal says

Posted at 7:55 PM, Feb 01, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-01 19:55:35-05

For years male students wore red robes, and female students wore white robes to graduation at Elyria High School.

Red and white are the school colors, but that's changing for graduation this spring.

The change happened after a group of students went to the principal on behalf of a student who was born female but does not identify as male or female.

Wanting to be inclusive, school official switched to gender neutral robes.

Now, all students will wear red robes.

There's also petitions for and against the change.

Principal Tim Brown said the change was made after a group of students asked him a question.

"What is the purpose of putting male students in one color and female students in an opposite color, so I felt it was important to prevent someone from being excluded in a graduation ceremony,”

Brown said all red robes will become permanent at future graduations.