Today in dress codes: A girl was sent home because her pants her were “too tight”
The most recent dress code kerfuffle is same-old, same-old with an added dash of creepy. A few months ago, Trentham High School in Stoke-on-Trent in England, took things to the next level by banning skirts from the school. This week, the school took things even further, sending home ten girls on the first day of classes because their trousers were “too tight” and, here’s the kicker, would be a “distraction” to the male teachers.
What? The biggest problem here is not the trousers, but that Trentham High School thinks its male teachers could be looking at their pupils in a sexual way. If this is the case, the first step should be to remove these teachers, not make students accommodate behavior that shouldn’t be at risk of happening in the first place.
The ten students in question were inspected with all the others on their way into the building, but were kept out of their lessons and could have faced isolation if they didn’t go home and change their trousers.
Fifteen-year-old Harriet Dale understandably feels self-conscious. “I was with a girl wearing exactly the same pair of trousers but, because I have slightly larger legs than her, I was told my trousers are too tight and that I must go home and change,” she explained, according to Yahoo News. “It’s really uncomfortable to think you could be walking around the corridors and teachers will be looking you up and down. I’m not the only person who feels that way.”
Students’ bodies are not what teachers should be focused on, and it’s particularly unnerving to think that female students could be in an environment where they’re being objectified by their male educators.
Parents are equally as peeved with these rules. “I’m incredibly angry,” Harriet’s mother, Helen, said according to The Daily Mail. “I can’t believe the school is kicking up a fuss over something so minor…I’m worried this will make Harriet conscious of her size when she should have much bigger worries as she takes her GCSEs.”
The GCSE, or General Certificate of Secondary Education, is the standardized test taken by all UK students during their secondary education.Keeping girls out of lessons is preventing them from learning the important information they need for this exam, and for life. That should be the priority—not their clothing.
(Image via iStock)
Related:
This school just sent home 100 girls for dress code violations
