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Still, I must tell you that I thought the student offered an extremely intelligent and very reasonable counter argument; i.e., "instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects".
I thought that her position would make great sense to most reasonable people and I further I believe it would make a great getaway line in anyone's closing argument.
I disagree with her argument for a few reasons. That same argument could be made for allowing anything from bikinis to full nudity at school. Be it fully covering the ankles vs below the knee vs two inches above the knee vs the fingertips vs fully covering the butt cheeks vs a thong bikini, anything less than full nudity represents some arbitrary line imposed on dress.
I also believe that the argument is little more than a catchy soundbite in this context. In a high school setting, you're talking about 14-18 year old boys. May as well argue that we need to teach the sharks that they shouldn't bite the seals.
A final thing I'd point out is that it reached 75 degrees Fahrenheit on the day in question. While I realize that "hot" is a subjective term, that merits consideration in her argument.
As far as I know, every school district in the US has some sort of dress code standard that they adhere to. If you don't live up to that standard, you need to be sent home or if you happen to have a change of clothes with you, change at school. If short shorts are allowed, then that's the set standard. If not, then they're not, even if you feel humiliated or embarrassed by having to change your clothing. It's up to the individual to adhere to the set standards of dress code, or at least her parents responsibility in this case.
When I was in high school, our dress code specified that shorts and skirts had to be no shorter than 3" above the knee, and teachers would get out a ruler and measure. There were other parts of the dress code that were subject to the teachers' interpretations. The dean of discipline did not like me and would come up with random things to punish me for...once I wore an ankle-length jumper with a dress blouse underneath (the polyester kind that went under a suit back then and was not sexy or revealing in any way), and she sent me to in school suspension because my blouse did not have a collar, even though collars were not required on dresses. Then she offered me a shirt from the lost-and-found that did have a collar, but it was a medium and I wore an extra large, so I went through the day with my bra and its contents clearly visible through my tight shirt. I can understand that dress codes can be enforced in unfair ways.
But the shorts rule is really clear-cut. Either they're long enough or they're not. It's not about boys being transformed into lust-driven apes by the sight of a girl's legs, it's about conforming to a set of rules even if you don't like them. That's something we all have to do in life.
I would say it just depends more on how the dress code is enforced across the board. Was she singled out while other girls wear the same style of shorts or short skirts? Were the boys all following dress code? If someone had an inappropriate hairstyle, were they told they needed to change it? With the Utah high school yearbook photos story freshly in my mind (where some girls had their yearbook photo changed, while other people who also were in tank tops or low-cut v-neck tops were left alone), it would be interesting to know if the school treated all students the same regarding dress code, or if this girl was singled out while others weren't.
I also think it was inappropriate of them to do it in front of everyone else. Teachers should have sent any student not up to dress code to the principal's office, and it should have been taken care of there. It was done in a humiliating way, which just isn't right.
If they had done it in a more private manner, and if they enforce the dress code across the board rather than just on that one day or with that one girl, then I think it's appropriate she was told she needed to change. A dress code is a dress code.
School dress codes are silly. They are always selectively enforced. Instead of having an increasing number of rules, schools should just switch to school uniforms like almost every other country on the planet. I don't see this happening because many school employees LIKE having a lot of rules to selectively enforce. At least in my school experience, teachers liked farting around with this sort of nonsense more than they did actual teaching.
When my daughter was in high school the principal would routinely ask the girls to stand up when they were at the lunch table and put their arms straight down. If their skirt or shorts were higher than the tips of their fingers they would be sent to the office to call Mom or Dad. While I understand a dress policy I didn't like how he went about it.
I also don't get how the gym shorts (that they specify) and the cheerleader skirts are MUCH shorter and are found to be acceptable while their personal shorts/skirts are not. Doesn't make sense!
While it's true that dress codes can make a huge difference in student behavior, this student is also right in asking the staff to address sexual harassment rather than blaming the victim.
When my daughter was in high school the principal would routinely ask the girls to stand up when they were at the lunch table and put their arms straight down. If their skirt or shorts were higher than the tips of their fingers they would be sent to the office to call Mom or Dad. While I understand a dress policy I didn't like how he went about it.
I also don't get how the gym shorts (that they specify) and the cheerleader skirts are MUCH shorter and are found to be acceptable while their personal shorts/skirts are not. Doesn't make sense!
You mean that there are schools that consider it to be just fine if their female students show much more in the way of flesh, on the schools' behalf no less, provided they do so outside of the classroom.
There are people who would consider the people who run such schools to be hypocrites.
Well it doesn't say what kind of shorts she was wearing. I mean, shorts are fine but were they cut up to the butt? Then yeah, not good just because I think that's trashy. But if they were regular shorts or even shorter than normal, I see no problem with it. I don't remember ever having a problem when I was in high school regarding dress codes or teachers/principals pulling some measuring act on me or anyone else. However, if the dress code is geared towards females & the "reasoning" behind it is because of male harassment, why aren't they addressing the men in all this? It's always blaming the women. Take responsibility men, learn how to control yourselves.
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