Ga. High School Teens Suspended for Getting Pierced in Girl's Locker Room
Four teens got suspended from school for holding an amateur 'piercing party.'
May 11, 2013— -- Four teenage girls at an Atlanta high school were suspended after they snuck away to the gym locker room to endure amateur tongue, navel, and lip piercings during school hours.
Reon Grinage, 14, told ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV that a friend of hers came to Cross Keys High School with a piercing kit she ordered off the Internet.
One day after gym class, the two teenagers, as well as two other girls, waited in the locker room. But instead of changing from their gym clothes to their school clothes to go to lunch, the four hung back to get pierced.
"She was like, 'Do you want to do it?' I was like, 'Sure.' And she had the whole kit and everything," Grinage told WSB-TV.
Grinage got a stud through her tongue, as well as her belly button. The friend with the piercing kit charged each of the girls $5 per piercing, WSB-TV reported.
"She used the same needle on that one girl that she did on the other girl," Grinage said.
One of the teens even suffered a lip infection following the unsafe piercing practices, Grinage said.
Once one of the girls' mothers found out about the "piercing party," she alerted school administrators. The girls were suspended for 10 days, WSB-TV reported.
Grinage's aunt, Lena Harrison, told WSB-TV that she was surprised none of her niece's teachers noticed her piercing.
"She saw four other teachers after this. Not one of them said, 'Is something going on with you that you can't talk?' Harrison told WSB-TV. "How did nobody hear girls in the bathroom getting pierced? Because I know it was quite an adventure."
School officials told WSB-TV that the locker room was unsupervised at the time of the piercing incident, and their policy for such supervision was under review.
According to the Cross Keys High School website, the school has a dress code, under which students are expected to "observe high standards of neatness and cleanliness."
"A student's appearance can positively or negatively impact the climate of a school," the dress code states.
While the school's code does not address piercings, it does say "male and female students may wear conservative jewelry in a reasonable amount."
ABC News' attempts to reach Harrison were not successful.
