An Ohio middle school is being criticized after it decided to remove the word 'feminist ' from a T-shirt an eighth grade girl wore in her class photo . Sophie Thomas wore the black shirt in March when she was having her picture taken at Clermont Northeastern Middle School in Batavia . When the students got their class photos this week , she saw the word had been removed from her shirt with Photoshop . Sophie Thomas ( center ) wore a shirt with the word 'feminist ' on it for class photo day at her middle school . Administrators at Clermont Northeastern Middle School in Batavia , Ohio , had word removed from her shirt . Thomas had worn the shirt to school in the past without any problems , FOX19 NOW reported . School principal Kendra Young said the word was removed to 'prevent any unintended controversies ' . Thomas , an eighth grader at the school , had worn the shirt in the past without having any problems . The school claimed it told Thomas the word was going to be removed from her shirt , but she said that is not the case , as does her mother , according to TODAY.com . Christine Thomas said her daughter only met with school officials after the doctored photo was released . Thomas said : ' I was upset . ' I went to the principal 's office and she told me she blacked it out because it 's offensive to some people . ' Ralph Shell , the superintendent of the Clermont Northeastern School District , said the situation was 'blown out of proportion ' , BuzzFeed News reported . He added : 'We took the photo and she was in the front row with the T-shirt on , and it was just not a flattering picture . ' On April 17 , Thomas asked people to post photos using the # IDESERVEFREEDOMOFEXPRESSION hashtag . On Friday , April 17 , Thomas asked people who found the school 's decision distasteful to wear a shirt showing their support for feminism or freedom of expression and post photos with the hashtag # IDESERVEFREEDOMOFEXPRESSION . The photos were collected on Instagram . She said : 'People around here misconstrue the word [ feminism ] . ' 'Like , 'Oh , you 're a feminist so you hate men . ' ' I just want to spread equality , and a lot of people here do n't agree with me . '
Sophie Thomas attends Clermont Northeastern Middle School in Batavia . She wore a black shirt bearing word for school picture day back in March . When students got photos this week , word was removed with Photoshop . Administrators said they asked to remove word , a claim Thomas disputes .