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She was suspended for wearing shorts that violated the school dress code. Her defense that the school should "teach boys that girls are not sexual objects," has nothing to do with her suspension. I doubt the rule says that only girls are not allowed to wear short shorts so it is not discriminating against girls. I also doubt that any type of instruction to teach boys that girls are not sexual objects would be very successful.
We went through a similar situation when I was in high school in the early 1970s. Girls were not allowed to wear any type of pants. The girls in the school decided they would all wear pants the next day. The principal heard about it and announced that effective the next day, girls would be allowed to wear pants suits. The next day, most of the girls came to school wearing jeans and nothing was said. Shorts were not permitted to be worn by either girls or boys and nobody questioned that rule.
My exerience both in schools and in the business world is that people will always push the limit on dress codes. I see no reason why girls should wear shorts with their butt cheeks hanging out. But a certain percentage of girls seem to enjoy wearing these type of shorts.
I also don't see any reason why guys should be walking around with their boxers exposed and pants falling down below their hips. Both seem very uncomfortable. I'm all in favor of school uniforms to eliminate these issues.
I am not of the mind that this young woman would have gone off and created a national storyline of the incident but for the fact that the two vice-principals publicly embarrassed her,. Even worse, they did it in front of her entire class.
Maybe she violated clear cut rules, but it is not evident that is necessarily true. What is evident is that the situation place in public in front of her peers and she felt that she was shamed in a manner that was either uncalled for or necessary or both.
I still think very highly of her counter argument: "'Don't humiliate her because she's wearing shorts. It's hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.'
There's a lesson to vice-principles (and others): If you do not need to shame someone, don't. They might seek to make you look bad too. Still worse, they might do a better job of it than you did to them.
I like the girls response it was smart but still take a 15 year old boy and put a 15 year old girl in shorts in front of him and guess what he is going to be distracted a wee bit.
Boys need to pull up their pants and girls need to stop dressing skimpy or sexy. School should be for learning school is not a fashion show. I have a relative who works in a high school and he is shocked at what the girls wear and how many under garments he finds around the school. He had a girl flash him her you know what one day. He guessed for the shock value.
School is for learning.
These Vice Principals could have handled this situation better.
I still think very highly of her counter argument: "'Don't humiliate her because she's wearing shorts. It's hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.'
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I don't think much of her counterargument.
First of all, where is the assertion by anyone that she needed to change bc she was distracting boys?
Second, so it's hot outside. So what? That doesn't change the dress code.
She can wear pasties and a thong to class bc it's hot outside?
If there is a dress policy, the students should follow it......
When did we start to allow kids to make the rules?
Apparently there wasn't, or she wouldn't have been singled out in the first place. I'm curious about how short the shorts were. There are appropriate short lengths and inappropriate short lengths. No matter how hot it is, too short is too short. And speaking as a woman who lives in Texas, I know all about hot days
"They continued to tell me I would be suspended if I didn't start following the rules. "
To me this intimates that she may have been talked to before about this issue. I agree with other posters who say this is not about the distraction of the boys but about the following (or NOT following, as it were) of the rules.
Apparently there wasn't, or she wouldn't have been singled out in the first place. I'm curious about how short the shorts were. There are appropriate short lengths and inappropriate short lengths. No matter how hot it is, too short is too short. And speaking as a woman who lives in Texas, I know all about hot days
Not fussing but how do we know there wasn't a dress code? Where does it say that in the post? Why is it assumed that she was "singled out"? Simply because she said so? There's a lot of assumption going on here, and we still don't have the other side of the story. Many are still taking the word of a supposedly wronged girl's word as infallible.
Virtually all school systems have dress codes now, and - due mainly to instances such as this - they are usually specific in detail. If she violated it, then she was in the wrong. At the end of every year I've taught, we see the hot weather and spring in the air cause wardrobe challenges to the students. Its the end of the year, some of the teachers are more lax in enforcing the dress code and the students will try to take advantage of this. The administration usually has to step in and do an enforcement before things get out of hand. If she was made an example, then so be it. We only have her word that it was "humiliating", which is subjective and prone to exaggeration. So forgive me if I don't have much sympathy for this girl. Again, what other instances has the administration had with her? Had there been a history of dress code violations? We hear that she was singled out, but what happened in the other classrooms around the building? Were the other students dressed appropriately? My goodness, people! How could anyone with at least 6 brain cells to connect together make any rational judgement on th situation without the COMPLETE PICTURE?
I am not of the mind that this young woman would have gone off and created a national storyline of the incident but for the fact that the two vice-principals publicly embarrassed her,. Even worse, they did it in front of her entire class.
Maybe she violated clear cut rules, but it is not evident that is necessarily true. What is evident is that the situation place in public in front of her peers and she felt that she was shamed in a manner that was either uncalled for or necessary or both.
I still think very highly of her counter argument: "'Don't humiliate her because she's wearing shorts. It's hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.'
There's a lesson to vice-principles (and others): If you do not need to shame someone, don't. They might seek to make you look bad too. Still worse, they might do a better job of it than you did to them.
Publicly embarassed her? OK, I agree the vice-principals should have simply called her to the office once she was observed breaking the dress code but I think this was mild public embarassment.
Regarding her counter-argument, how were girls being shamed for their bodies? Did the dress code say, No overweight girls are permitted to wear shorts that are less than six inches from top to bottom?
And again, this was about a school dress code, not about anyone being a sexual object.
VPs handled it badly. Any type of discussion about inappropriate dress should be handled privately. Why unnecessarily humiliate someone?
That being said, I worked at a company where dress code was an issue, and the manager was a real stickler about it. Girls would come to work with a skimpy black bra under a skin tight white jersey top, pants so tight you could see every panty line and creeping up their rear, blouses cut really really low, etc. As a supervisor, I had to speak to several on my team about this, which I hated having to do. People should know appropriate business attire once they enter the workforce. And it begins with dressing appropriately in school. If you want to dress provocatively, save it for activities done on your own personal time.
Someone's clothing and someone else's behavior are like comparing apples and oranges.
Speaking of how some people dress, there are people who purposely pick certain outfits knowing very well about the amount of attention they will receive, but expect people to remain silent. Why?
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