Quebec student sent home for wearing Senators jersey to school

It's not every day a grade five student can make her dad proud by getting kicked out of school, but Keila Penner did.

Dress code at Maple Grove Elementary School in a suburb of Montreal requires students to wear a blue cardigan with the school logo, solid navy pants and a plain white shirt or blouse. They are not allowed to wear jeans, hats or anything with a logo on it.

So you can imagine how excited students must have been to be able to wear a hockey jersey of their favourite team to school instead of the standard uniform. It was designed for students to wear Canadiens jerseys to support the team for game one of the Easter Conference quarter-final series on Thursday. But 11-year-old Keila put on the jersey of her favourite team, the Ottawa Senators (who the Canadiens are playing in the first round) and went to school.

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Keila endured verbal taunts and 'Senators suck' jabs from her classmates, although we're guessing it wasn't quite as bad as wearing a Maple Leafs jersey into the Bell Centre in Montreal. She was later sent to the principal's office and told to either put on a white T-shirt or call her dad and tell him to take her home.

"I didn't think it was fair," she said to CTV Montreal. "I'm allowed to have my own opinion."

She called her dad and he picked her up.

"I think they missed an opportunity to teach a good lesson," said Cary Penner, Keila's dad. "Especially about bullying and bullying is such a big thing right now."

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But her dad wasn't the only one to side with Keila on this issue. Senators' owner Eugene Melnyk noticed the story and invited her entire family to Ottawa for last night's game. Melnyk even sent a limo to pick them all up.

"This is a feisty kid to be able to stand up like this," said Melnyk to Senators Extra. "Trying to punish a kid for not being a Habs fan is about as stupid as I've ever seen...This little girl's got principles."

Maple Grove Elementary didn't immediately return phone calls requesting an interview.

Chances are it's a night no one in the family will soon forget. Cary Penner said to CTV, "I'm very glad she stuck to her guns."