Teen’s Collarbones Launch Controversy Over Dress Code

[niyad]

Teen’s Collarbones Launch Controversy Over Dress Code

Stephanie Hughes, a student at Woodford County High School in Kentucky, found herself in the principal’s office on the very first day of school this year. Her crime? Exposing her collarbones.



Stephanie’s mother, Stacie Dunn, arrived at the school to to find “a group of female students standing in the office due to being out of dress code also,” Dunn wrote on Facebook on August 13. “Parents are being called away from their important jobs and students are missing important class time because they are showing their collarbones!" Even after Dunn found her daughter a scarf to wear, she was still sent home. But Dunn’s condemnation of the dress code struck a chord: her original Facebook post has now been shared nearly 50,000 times. (The offending outfit is pictured at left.)

. . . . .

But women students at Woodford say these requirements are subjectively and sporadically enforced. Maggie Sunseri, a Woodford student, released a 33-minute documentary on YouTube in March focusing on the 10-year-old dress code. In the video, titled, Shame: A Documentary on School Dress Code, Sunseri interviews numerous women students, many of whom had been called out by authority figures for “inappropriate” attire.



“My boyfriend, he wore a pair of his soccer shorts to school,” explains one woman in the documentary. “Soccer shorts come above your knee. And it was completely fine for him. I wore the exact same pair—he gave them to me—I wore the exact same pair and they told me not to wear it again, because they could see my knees. It was like a warning.”
. . . . .

“It sends the message to boys that it’s all girls’ fault,” remarks another student in the documentary. “It wasn’t [the boys’] fault that they were staring or got distracted. It was the girls’ fault.”

. . . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/08/27/teens-collarbones-launch-controversy-over-dress-code/

[jberryhill]

1. Well, just don't Google: collar bone porn

Of course it is more fun that Mad Libs to Google

________ porn

Because, I swear to the FSM, there is nothing you can fill in that blank which is not someone's fetish.

In any event, her collarbones are not exposed. They are under her skin where they should be. If her collar bones were exposed, the proper thing to do would be to seek immediate medical attention.

[niyad]

4. you are absolutely correct about the medical attention thing.

and I will simply take your word about the fetish thing--one of those TMI things.

[TexasProgresive]

2. My niece was telling us about the same collarbone fetish at her school

She said that girls will come to school wearing button down shirts unbuttoned to the waist and NO PROBLEM but show a collarbone and don't let the door slap you on your way out. What started this collarbone thing? Maybe it's the administrators that need to do some soul searching.

[niyad]

5. or, at the very least, a long talk with their therapists.

[Igel]

3. Don't get the "collarbone" thing.

On the other hand, sporadic enforcement of dress code policy is a given.

Not high on the list of things to deal with, and there are often a lot of things to deal with. Often a proxy for something else, a way of getting a student out of the classroom or a particular teacher's pet peeve.

File it under the august and much respected executive decision reguarding "prosecutorial discretion." Which is often another word for "selective enforcement."

[niyad]

6. all of the above.

[TexasProgresive]

7. The enforcement of the dress code at my high school was not sporadically enforced.

It was a Catholic all boys school. We did not wear uniforms but the dress code was simple - shirts with collars, slacks no jeans, belts, street shoes not sneakers and socks. There were rules about hair, what I can remember is that is could not touch the collar in the back. Any infraction caused the student to be sent home to change into "appropriate" clothing. It didn't happen too often.

Partly I am sure is that most of the students were legacy- there was a family history of brothers, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers having attended so it was a case of shaming the family. I can remember my teachers saying more than once, "Your parents are spending hard earned money for you to attend this school, we don't intend to waste it. If you do not wish to attend this school you can save your parents the expense by going back out the door."

That said we were encouraged in the free expression of ideas in the classroom as long as it was civil.