FAYETTEVILLE -- Some Native American students and leaders are asking the Cumberland County School Board to allow them to continue wearing decorative stoles at high school graduation.

It's a graduation tradition that Lumbee tribe members say has been around since 2010.

"It was definitely an honor because Native American students are such a small population, and you have to do so much community service," said Gray's Creek High School graduate Cheyenne Strickland. "We really try to give back to our community." 

Some Native American students and Lumbee tribe leaders say these stoles are earned through countless hours of community service, but at a Cumberland County Board of Education meeting in September, school officials voted to ban the practice. Chairman Greg West says the board voted to create a new policy to make graduation attire more uniform.

"What we try to do is set clear guidelines about uniformity at our graduation ceremonies. So when we go into the coming graduation year, we won't have as much confusion," West said.

West says only valedictorians, salutatorians, National Honor Society members, and student government members will be allowed to wear stoles at graduation ceremonies, but some Native Americans are pleading with the board to take back the ban.

"Taking away the stoles strips us of our sense of achievement and what we have worked so long for," said South View High School senior Harrison Jones. "I've worked six years for this. It just hurts a lot."