Leo High School senior Kylee Furnish finished Marine boot camp about a week ago, but she’s already fighting her first battle.

Although East Allen County Schools officials think otherwise, the 18-year-old believes she should have the right to wear her dress military uniform during high school graduation on Sunday.

Furnish said she’s proud of her military accomplishments and is required to wear her uniform at ceremonial events. East Allen officials, however, said it’s a long-standing policy that every student must wear the same cap and gown.

“I’m a Marine more than anything,” Furnish said. “It’s disgraceful just to wear a cap and gown and not my dress blues.”

Furnish is the latest military service member to find herself in this predicament. Recently, one of Furnish’s platoon mates was told she could not wear her uniform during her high school graduation in Pittsburgh. In both cases, district officials are arguing that it’s more important to honor graduation policies than to make exceptions for military service members.

Furnish completed her high school requirements in March and started three months of boot camp just days later. Furnish said school officials originally told her she could wear her dress blues at graduation. But at rehearsal Friday, Furnish was told she would need to wear a gown.

At boot camp, Furnish said, she was told she should always wear her uniform during ceremonial events.

Aside from those requirements, she said, allowing her to wear her uniform would be the patriotic and right thing to do.

“If I can’t wear it, I won’t go,” she said. “It sucks because I worked hard to graduate from high school but I worked even harder to graduate from the Marines.”

East Allen spokeswoman Tamyra Kelly said the district’s policy has always been to have students dress in the same manner.

The district cannot place itself in a position where it makes some exceptions for some students but not for others, she said.

“I understand she is a Marine and I understand that is dear to her and her family’s heart,” she said. “But if we let one student do that we would set a precedent for years to come.”

The district will give Furnish a cap and gown, Kelly said, and is fine with Furnish wearing her uniform underneath the gown.

East Allen is in agreement with officials at Pittsburgh’s North Allegheny High School, who are forbidding Furnish’s friend, Lindsay Starr – who also completed high school early to join the Marines – from wearing her uniform on graduation.

But not all school districts have similar polices.

Students are allowed to wear their uniforms at Fort Wayne Community Schools, according to spokeswoman Krista Stockman. So far, she said, the policy has not caused any problems.

Furnish’s mother, Natasha, said she was frustrated with the district’s decision.

“(Kylee) worked hard through high school to graduate early because she always wanted to do this,” she said. “She wants to be able to wear her dress blues because technically that is what she must wear at ceremonial events … Somebody’s not going to come with their McDonald’s uniform on for graduation.”

Furnish plans to leave for Camp Lejeune, N.C., on June 27 for combat training and will then go on to Pensacola, Fla., to train to be an air wing crew chief.

dhaynie@jg.net