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Nearly 200 Girls Get Detention For Violating New Strict Dress Code At SI High School
By
Lauren Evans
Published Sep 15, 2014
Modified Sep 15, 2014
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Photograph courtesy of the Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel
By
Lauren Evans
Published Sep 15, 2014
Modified Sep 15, 2014
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A Staten Island high school is facing a backlash from students for its newly implemented, hyper-strict dress code, for which 200 students have already been given detention for violating.
Students at Tottenville High School are fighting back against the draconian new policy, which prohibits girls from wearing shorts or skirts shorter than finger-tip length—in addition to low-cut or midriff-bearing tops—despite many classrooms not having air conditioning. In protest, some girls—who comprise 90 percent of the detentions given over the past two weeks—are dressing more skimpily than ever.
"These students are rebelling to the point of basically wearing undergarments,” one father, who is also considering a class-action lawsuit against the school, told the Post.
The changes came at the behest of the school's interim principal, who wrote in the new dress code policy that "Dressing for Success applies not only to the workplace," and that "students do have the right to determine their own dress except where such dress is dangerous or interferes with the learning and teaching process."
Students found to be in violation of the dress code are required to change—either by phoning a doting parent to deliver a back-up outfit or by putting on gym clothes instead.
Many students have objected to what they feel is the sexist nature of the new code—while muscle shirts, wallet chains and spiked jewelry have also been banned, the bulk of the new restrictions apply to girls.
“Tottenville should just be an all boys school considering this dress code is only affecting the girls,” one student told CBS New York. Another pointed out that baking in a hot class room in restrictive clothing isn't exactly conducive to learning, either.
"I get that they want to teach us to respect ourselves and others, and that they want us to dress for success, but if you're comfortable and relaxed in class -- not sweltering or fearful you're going to get pulled aside -- you can pay attention better and learn," she told the Staten Island Advance.
Not everyone, however, objects to the new policies. “I was at a football game the other night here, and I thought I was at a strip club,” one woman told complained to CBS. Another parent echoed the popular "strip club" trope to the Post: “The girls wear these little booty shorts that you can see the crease of their buttocks,” one mom said. “They look like they’re training to work in strip clubs.”
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dress code
staten island
tottenville high school
Lauren Evans
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