Stockton senior excluded from yearbook after wearing tux instead of dress
STOCKTON - A high school senior's portrait is removed from a Stockton high school yearbook after the teen told FOX40 she opted to wear a suit instead of a dress.
Crystal Cumplido said she was upset when she found out that her senior portrait wasn't included in Lincoln High School's yearbook.
Smiling ear-to-ear, dressed in a black suit and red bow tie, Cumplido looks effervescent in her high school senior portrait.
"Because that's what I'm comfortable with," Cumplido told FOX40 on Friday.
But the young woman told us when she got her yearbook it's what wasn't there that upset her.
"It's like I didn't even exist in Lincoln," she said.
Cumplido claimed her portrait wasn't included in Lincoln High School's yearbook because of a a policy that is now under review.
She added she's been trying to get answers from high school administrators and told us what her assistant principal explained to her.
"He told me that I wasn't following policy. That girls are supposed to wear the black, little shirt over whatever," Cumplido said.
We sat down with the Superintendent of Lincoln Unified School District, who claimed this oversight should not have happened.
"I believe that they have been wronged in this situation and we will do everything possible to protect this student," Tom Uslan, the Superintendent for the Lincoln Unified School District said.
Cumplido said she's simply asking for the school to republish her yearbook and the library's yearbook with her senior portrait.
Uslan said they will reach out to the Cumplido family and are willing to go so far as to republish the entire schools yearbook.
"Well, it was an inexcusable error that is inconsistent with our school district policies," Uslan said.
For the teen who is set to graduate in days the book is more than just her picture.
"I was angry, I was frustrated. I just wanted to know why, you know," she said.
It's a snapshot in time of the young woman she is and the ideals she stands for.
