How much control should a school have over what type of clothing their students wear? School dress codes have caused a lot of controversy in the past. Recently, two Pennsylvania high school students took to Twitter to share their opinion about their school’s consequences about breaking dress code.
Senior Hailey Brown of Loyalstock Township High School got detention for showing cleavage and “excessive midriff.”
What left Hailey and her friend Emily LaCerra so shocked was the fact that Hailey was wearing jeans and a sweater. Emily decided to take pictures of Hailey’s outfit and post them on Twitter. She also made sure to tag the school’s active account.
Hailey has left comments and replies regarding the post saying that a male classmate had reported her for showing “cleavage,” when in fact, the triangle cut-out in her sweater is up near her neck. After receiving the reports, the school followed up and decided to give Hailey detention for breaking code.
Hailey and Emily’s motive in posting the photos online was to stand up for what’s right and bring the attention to the school district.
“I’m actually going to college in NYC for political science and women and gender studies, and I plan on being in many clubs that raise awareness for LGBTQA+ people, women, and people of all kinds,” Hailey replied. “I want to leave a message and help raise awareness for issues such as what I was dress coded for.”
What was especially frustrating for Emily and Hailey was the fact that their school had recently had a discussion about this very same issue. During that discussion, they had already reversed a policy that shamed students for their clothing.
“It’s almost like we didn’t have a meeting with @LTHSPrincipal to change the issue of girls constantly being shamed & taken out of class for their normal outfits?” Emily tweeted.
During that incident, another student named Farrin Khan created an online petition to make sure that the school would not be allowed to take pictures or shame students for breaking school dress code violations. Since the required amount of signatures was received, the school has since updated their official school dress code regulations.
After the high school seniors shared their story on Twitter, there was a clear divide down the middle — some people agreed with the girls, others sided with the school.
Many people thought that the school was over-reacting and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Hailey’s outfit. Some people felt that Hailey’s outfit isn’t addressing the bigger issue.
Others felt that her outfit was inappropriate and the school was just enforcing their policy.
The full Twitter post is below. What do you think? Did the school take things too far or was their discipline appropriate?
@itsleeeeeee has an after school detention for “excessive midriff” in this outfit. It’s almost like we didn’t have a meeting with @LTHSPrincipal to change the issue of girls constantly being shamed & taken out of class for their normal outfits? pic.twitter.com/X0KfUCAFuA
— Em (@emilylacerra) November 9, 2017
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