Girls Fight Back Against Gender Bias in School Dress Codes
In 2014, a group of middle school students in Inglewood, New Jersey, started the hashtag campaign, #IAmMoreThanADistraction, to call attention to their school’s dress code.
Last year, Anna Loisa Cruz, a seventh-grader at Irvington School in Portland, Ore., was among four students who testified before the Portland Public Schools Board of Education to talk about school dress codes. She shared the story of one of her schoolmates who was “dress coded” for wearing a skirt that fell a couple of centimeters above her fingertips when holding her arms by her sides. The student was sent to the office where repeated calls to her home went unanswered. After a two-hour wait, the student went home, too embarrassed to return to her last period class.
Eighth-grade student Hailey Tjensvold added that school dress codes “have unknowingly set up double standards, creating a separation in the application of the punishment for [violating] the dress code.” She explained how boys whose trousers sag are simply told to “pull your pants up” without further repercussion while girls are sent to the office and “forced” to call their parents to bring them a change of clothes.
For many students across the nation—particularly girls—how school dress codes are enforced has been a contentious issue. In April 2015, a Texas honors student wassent home for wearing yoga pants and an oversized shirt that covered her entire backside. In August, a Kentucky student was sent home for showing her collarbone. After her mother brought a scarf to cover her neck, the administration still deemed it “inappropriate.” In Indiana, a 12-year-old student was suspended and missed two days of class. The offense: tight pants. Other dress-code violations include baring shoulders, wearing a tank top, or exposing a bra strap.
The Portland students represent only one group of a growing number of students who are spotlighting unfair and discriminatory school dress codes. In 2014, New Jersey middle-schoolers, fed up with being shamed for wearing comfortable clothes Girls Fight Back Against Gender Bias in School Dress Codes - NEA Today: