SCIOTO COUNTY, Ohio (WSAZ) -- A 17-year-old girl from Scioto County is breaking the stereotype of masons. Shania Clifford, of Lucasville, is the only girl in her masonry class at Scioto County Career Technical Center.

"I mean, at first it was challenging lifting heavy blocks and everything, but then I got used to it and it's just something that I like to do," Clifford said. "Not a lot of women really do this trade."

In April, Clifford competed at a statewide masonry competition in Columbus put on by SkillsUSA Ohio. She says she competed with more than a dozen other competitors, but few of them were girls.

"At first, it was really nerve-wracking knowing there were so many people there and everything," Clifford said. "My instructor, he has motivated me to do better and work through my frustration and I just went on with it and got it done."

Clifford says she was the first female to win first place in the competition.

"Whenever they were announcing the winners, they announced third place and then second and I thought I didn't get it," Clifford said. "They announced my name and I screamed and everything. I was so excited."

With her gold medal, she also got a spot in the national competition which is being held this week in Louisville, Kentucky. Clifford said she came home from the state competition and immediately began to prepare.

However, in May, Clifford said SkillsUSA contacted her school about a grievance in the state competition which could jeopardize her chance to compete nationally.

"I wasn't sure if I was still competing because they was only notified about the grievance," Clifford said. "Nothing else was said or explained. They just said the scores were miscalculated, and there was no further explaining from that."

In a statement released by Brittany Halpin, associate director for media relations at the Ohio Department of Education, the organization followed protocol in notifying the students of the issue.

"Regarding the way the student was informed of the error, the Ohio Department of Education's policy is to communicate with each student's school district, rather than with the students themselves," Halpin said. "As soon as the error was discovered, administrators from all affected students' school districts were contacted."

However, Clifford said she was not personally informed and found out she wouldn't be competing in the national competition from a post on social media by a boy she competed against in the state competition.

"I figured they would actually contact my school first and actually explain, but they had called the boy instead," Clifford said. "The way that I found out was over Facebook. The boy, he had posted a status saying that he got a call from the Skills representative saying that he will be competing at nationals."

Haplin says there was a mistake with the scoring process. When the scores were manually entered in a spreadsheet, the spokeswoman says some scores were "inadvertently duplicated," inflating several students' final scores. Clifford was not the real winner.

"I honestly feel like it was their mistake because the contest was one day and the awards were next, so they have that time frame to look over scores and make sure everything was correct and it was giving the award to the right people," Clifford said. "It was upsetting, really, but they really should go back over everything and make sure things are correct before they actually start handing out the awards."

Clifford says she got to keep her gold medal, but was not allowed to continue on in the competition. She says she doesn't understand why the mistake wasn't caught sooner.

"At first, it felt like I did all this work for nothing, cause whenever state was over with, I had come back here and I worked and everything to get myself prepared," Clifford said. "It felt like all that work was for nothing."

Although the organization says it was simply a scoring error, Clifford said she doesn't believe that's the whole story. She believes there was something going on behind closed doors and that it's because she's a girl.

"I kind of do feel discriminated against, like it was a gender issue," Clifford said. "I was a female and I was also a junior that had won state and the boy that is now taking my spot, he's a senior, and I just feel like he didn't like being beaten by a girl."

Many are standing behind her. Thousands of people from all across the country have rallied behind Clifford on social media. Groups were created in support of Clifford and there is even an online petition circulating, calling on SkillsUSA to make the situation right.

The goal of the petition is to reach 1,000 signatures. As of 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, it had reached 936.

"SkillsUSA competitor Shania Clifford, competed in the masonry competition at the state level and was awarded 1st place," the petition states. "According to the rules, within 15 minutes decisions are final. Later Shania was stripped of her position awarding her place to a young boy at a school of high funding long after she began her training for the national level competitor even though it was against the rules and this very same incident has taken place before. Corruption has been a large issue in this organization as schools have gone against rules and gone behind backs to ensure their students fill positions and receive awards."

Larry Moore, Clifford's instructor at the technical center, says this is not the first time SkillsUSA has taken a title away from one of his students. He says in 2010, the same thing happened to another junior student of his, a boy. He says about two weeks after the boy won the state competition, his title was also taken away because of a scoring error.

"The biggest thing I would like to see is something changed in the scoring system so this never happens to a student again," Moore said. "Shania, she has been devastated with everything that's been going on and it has been extremely hard on her. I think somehow, some way, we need to get the scoring system changed to where this will never happen again and that should come down not only through the state of Ohio but also through the national system."

Regardless of the reason why her title was taken away, both Clifford and Moore says the situation was handled the wrong way. Clifford says she has not received an apology for the organization.

"They haven't personally said anything to me," Clifford said.

She says she does not know if she will try to compete in the state competition next year.

However, Clifford says she appreciates the support she's received on social media and hopes this sends a positive message to other women to never give up, even in a "man's trade."

"I feel like any woman can do anything they put their mind to, no matter the negative comments that they get or anything," Clifford said. "They shouldn't stop doing what they love because of all the negative comments. They should pursue everything. I mean, it's only the beginning from here. They can move mountains if they wanted to."

Haplin said actions are being taken to improve the scoring process. Below is her full statement, on behalf of SkillsUSA, to WSAZ:

"During the 2016 SkillsUSA Ohio masonry competition, student scores were entered into score sheets by judges. Those scores were then entered into a spreadsheet manually to calculate final scores. When student scores were entered into the final score spreadsheet, an error was made and some scores were inadvertently duplicated, causing some students to receive double the score that they actually received. This error affected results for several students and resulted in the rankings showing an incorrect winner of the competition.

"No errors were made in the judges' score sheets themselves, and the final corrected scores reflect the scores on the individual score sheets for each student. Upon discovery of the error through the regular review process, the duplicate scores were removed to show the actual winner of the competition. SkillsUSA confirmed that Ohio has followed all policies pertaining to the resolution of errors.

"The student who should have been awarded the gold medal at the competition will be the one to represent Ohio as the national competitor. The student who was incorrectly named the winner at the state competition is still invited to attend and observe the national competition. Corrective actions are being taken to improve the scoring process.

"Regarding the way the student was informed of the error, the Ohio Department of Education's policy is to communicate with each student's school district, rather than with the students themselves. As soon as the error was discovered, administrators from all affected students' school districts were contacted."