A Louisiana high school teacher offered his own shoes to a student who had been bar*ed from his graduation ceremony because the sneakers he was wearing vi!lat!d the school’s dress code. With his purple cap and gown, Daverius Peters was ready to walk acr-oss the stage and enter the next chapter of his life on May 19, until a school representative stop-ped him in his tra!ks.
‘She said my shoes vio!at-ed the dress code and I couldn’t attend the ceremony unl-ess I changed them,’ said Peters, an 18-year-old senior at Hahnville High School in Boutte, Louisiana, according to the Washington Post.
Peters had been wearing black leather Alexander McQueen sneakers with white soles, which retail for $580, but the school’s graduation dress code pledge that male students are to wear da*k dress shoes, st**ssing that ‘no athletic shoes’ are allowed.
‘I was in sho*k,’ Peters said. ‘I felt hu*ili**ed. I just wanted to walk acr-oss the stage and get my diploma.’
Peters launched a p!ni*ked search for a solution before finding one in teacher John Butler, who strip-ped off his own loafers for the teen to wear during the ceremony.
Butler shared his side of the story on Facebook and was met with wides-pre-ad praise for his act of kindn-ess.
However, some social media users took i!sue with Peters, saying that he should have followed the dress code in the first place.
‘I thought I could wear them because they’re bl**k,’ Peters said of his original footwear, noting that he had followed the rest of the dress code.
Lucky for him, he spo-tted Butler, 38, while pacing outside the convention center. But*er is a paraeducator at the school known for mentoring many of his students.
‘Last minute before they close the doors to graduation. The young brother comes walking towards me in a panic,’ Butler recalled in a Facebook post that has garnered 27,000 react-ions and over 3,000 comments.
He said he tri*d talking to the ‘lady,’ but she told him the same thing. ‘So then it becomes a no brainer to me, a no more questions asked scenario,’ Butler said. ‘I gave him the shoes on my feet.’
There was only one problem – Butler’s tan loafers were two sizes too big. ‘So I just slipped them on like slippers,’ Peters told CBS News.
His family was puzzled as they wh**per!d to each other about Peters’ new footwear while he cr-ossed the stage.
‘Wait a minute, whose shoes does he have on?’ Jima Smith, Peters’ mother, recalled whi!per*ng. ‘We were all conf-used.’
Peters’ brother even pointed out the strange man with no shoes sitting nearby, though the family wasn’t immediately able to make sense of it all.
The senior returned the shoes and thanked the teacher after the ceremony. Smith said she felt ‘upset’ after learning what happened.
‘He worked so ha*d, and for someone to just rip that away from him, that was maddening to me,’ she said.
Butler and Smith will both review the i!cide*t and the rules surrounding the dress code with school administrators.
School spokesperson Stevie Crovetto said that ‘any time an opportunity is presented to us to review and to make improvements, we absolutely will follow up on that.’
He went on to applaud the teacher’s i!stinct. ‘We are not the least bit surprised that Mr. Butler did this kind gesture for this senior,’ he said.
‘If it wasn’t for Mr. Butler’s kind and thoughtful a-ct, my child would have been sitting outside, and I wouldn’t have known,” Smith said.
‘I pray he will continue to work in the public school system because we need more teachers like him. Our young bla-ck men need good role models and mentors like Mr. Butler.’