HS students crossdress to school to protest district's gender-based dress code

[davidn3600]

In the small city of Clovis northeast of Fresno, high school students are protesting their district’s decision not to update its controversial, decades-old dress code.

The code forbids boys from wearing earrings or keeping their hair below their earlobes. A proposed update would have set the same standards around hair and jewelry for both boys and girls, and would have removed language saying skirts and dresses are for girls. Last Wednesday, Clovis Unified trustees voted 4-3 against updating the policy.

Numerous students at Buchanan High responded to that decision by defying gender norms with their outfits, the Fresno Bee reports:

Buchanan High School senior Patrick Smart wore a dress for the first time last week. His classmate, Emma Sledd, wore a collared men’s shirt to school.

“The reason we switched gender norms for the day was to make the statement that what we wear does not define us as students,” Sledd said. “Our district’s dress code should not favor or discriminate any gender. We believe everyone should be able to express themselves equally. A boy with long hair is no less of a hard worker than a girl with long hair.”

Sledd, a senior, was joined by a few of her female classmates in wearing stereotypically boyish attire, and tweeted: “If we can dress like them, they can dress like us.”

http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/02/02/students-defy-gender-norms-to-protest-clovis-dress-code

This district is apparently a politically conservative suburb of Fresno. The ACLU has sued the district multiple times over issues in the past. In one case it sued because the district wouldnt allow a Native American student to wear a traditional eagle feather in his graduation hat. The district has also been sued over it's abstinence-only education curriculum where the district was accused of teaching lies and misinformation concerning sex, birth control, and STDs.

The ACLU says they will sue again.

[iemitsu]

1. Good for them.

[noiretextatique]

2. is our children learnin?

apparently they are! excellent, kids.

[Wilms]

8. This is how I see it!

Go, kids!

[jberryhill]

3. Brilliant

[LiberalArkie]

4. K&R for the kids protest and making the school board having to scratch their head trying to

figure a way out of it.

[brer cat]

5. Excellent way to make the point!

[cui bono]

6. Way to go!!!

There's still hope...

.

[RKP5637]

7. There are places in CA that are pits with this conservative crap! I've been there! They suck! n/t

[Nye Bevan]

9. I would like to see our presidential candidates supporting this cause.

Perhaps Bernie Sanders could wear a dress to the next debate.