A GROUP OF teenagers have protested their school’s harsh dress code policy with male students showing up for school in dresses, and female students wearing shirts and jeans.
The students of Buchanan High School in Clovis, California, were protesting their school district’s decision to uphold the dress code, which, among other things, states that “male haircuts may not fall below the mid-point of a standard stand up shirt collar” and “earrings are not appropriate or acceptable for males as school attire”.
In the past, students have been prevented from enrolling for school for failing to comply with the dress code.
In a letter to Fresno Bee, student William Pleasant wrote:
I am a student in Clovis Unified School District and I would like to know why I have been harassed, punished and been denied my education repeatedly for simply being a man with long hair.
I want to know what is so fundamentally wrong with men who have long hair that the dress code specifically bans it. I want to know why girls can have short or long hair but men are forced to have short hair.
And adorned their outfits with the phrase “DRESS CODE SUCKS”.
While male students wore dresses.
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Students have even set up a petition demanding a gender neutral dress code. So far, it has picked up nearly 3,200 signatures.
As for how teachers responded to the sight of male students in dresses? A student told Buzzfeed News that they were largely supportive of the protest.
While some teachers dress-coded a few of the people in protest, most of our upper administration is supportive of what we’re doing.
Excellent work, everyone.
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