NJ principal bans 'distracting' strapless dresses at 8th-grade dance

[The Straight Story]

A New Jersey middle school principal has upset parents for saying girls could not wear strapless dresses to an eighth grade dance because, she said, they’d distract the boys.

“She said strapless dresses … are age inappropriate,” Charlotte Nijenhuis, 50, from Whitehouse Station, N.J., told ABCNews.com about her conversation with Readington Middle School’s principal, Sharon Moffat.

Moffat sent out a letter this month, restricting girls from wearing dresses without straps to their eighth grade formal.

“Young gentleman are encouraged to wear collared shirts and trousers,” Moffat said in the letter. ”Young ladies should wear a skirt, dress with straps or a dressy pants outfit.”

Nijenhuis, whose daughter is an eighth grader at the school, said she challenged Moffat’s strapless-dress ban. When the principal told her the dresses would distract male students, Moffat said, ”Distracting [them] from what? It’s a sexist comment.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/04/strapless-dresses-too-distracting-for-n-j-school-dance/

[olddots]

1. It's 8th.grade

the mom sounds LOW GRADE

[Ilsa]

2. Girls looking like girls will "distract" most of the boys if

The boys are old enough.

I liked Dear Abby's statement when asked by a teenager if she was old enough to wear a strapless dress: If you can keep it up, you're old enough to wear it.

[Botany]

3. I predict a run on strapless dresses among the young ladies of Whitehouse Station, N.J.

BTW Whitehouse Station, N.J. sounds to me like a place for rich white people ....

[hay rick]

4. Not all rich.

Had a truck-driving friend who lived there.

[bluedigger]

5. It's a dance.

They are supposed to be "distracted".

[madinmaryland]

6. And yet if anything happens at this dance with 12-14 year olds, DU will be howling for the

principal's head. The man is just trying to cover the school's ass.

Because you can be sure as shit that something WILL happen.

[Demo_Chris]

7. I think we need Burkas to protect females

[VWolf]

12. That would make for an interesting protest

If one could convince enough students to do it.

[Downwinder]

8. Isn't that why they wear strapless-dresses?

[LadyHawkAZ]

9. Because spaghetti straps hide so much more than strapless???

Dumb.

[Heather MC]

10. This is the beginning of it's the girls fault for getting raped lesson these children

will be learning.

However, a quickly hand sewn Ribbon strap will meet the requirement.

Although I am not sure why the principal believes a simple shoulder strap will keep these wild untamed boys under control.

Maybe the girls should just cover them selves from head to toe with just their eyes showing.

[laundry_queen]

13. No kidding. nt

[sadbear]

11. But they can still grind, so it's okay.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. Is this an exception to the norm?

Are strapless dresses normally worn at a typical 8th grade dance today? I'm not agreeing with the Principal, as I don't think it's a big deal and the girls aren't showing more than they'd show to young boys at the public swimming pool wearing a one piece suit with uncovered shoulders. I'm just thinking back to my own 7th grade dance back in 1962 and I'm pretty sure there were few dresses worn by the girls that were specially bought for the occasion. The parents wouldn't have been able to afford it. The senior prom would have been the more likely place. Are 8th grade dances now a big deal requiring a special new wardrobe or are these girls just from rich families?