ORLANDO, Fla. -- An Orange County teen won't be taking her final exams until the rest of her classmates are out for the summer. Ashley Dameron wore a confederate t-shirt to school Monday and refused to change. Ashley's principal said it was her attitude and not her t-shirt that got her suspended.

If you're familiar with Gone With The Wind, you've already heard the names Ashley and Tara. But that was a work of fiction. It's a fact that Ashley Dameron and her mother, Tara Hazelwood, had ancestors who fought in the civil war.

So, when Ashley put on a t-shirt and headed to Colonial High School, she didn't see anything wrong with it.

"It stands for, like, your background. It stands for your background," she said.

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"This is the land of the free. We have freedom of speech and, to a certain extent, freedom to wear what we want to wear," her mother said.

Principal Paul Mitchell did take issue with the t-shirt, as he has with other pieces of clothing students have worn in the past.

"What we're trying to do in schools is have a standard that people are going to accept and what people won't accept, and all feel comfortable," Mitchell said.

That would appear to be the principal's prerogative. Eyewitness News checked and Orange County schools have dress code requirements, but encourage schools to extend their own standards.

Plus, Mitchell said, it wasn't the t-shirt that got Ashley suspended, but rather some colorful language. The principal said another student was called in Monday for wearing an inappropriate t-shirt and she was not suspended.

"I had no intention of getting suspended today," Ashley said.

But, she said, she also didn't see any reason she shouldn't wear her heritage on her sleeve.

Even with the school year winding down, Ashley and her mom said they'd like to talk with some school board members about the appropriateness of wearing the confederate flag.