School dress codes have always been a hot topic for teachers, parents, and school administrators. But social media has upped the ante, with students having found an outlet to share their opinions about the consequences of the way they dress. And two Pennsylvania high school students who took to Twitter are the latest examples of this.
Seniors Emily LaCerra and Hailey Brown, of Loyalsock Township High School in the town of Williamsport, recently used Twitter to call out their school after Hailey got detention for her outfit. “Excessive midriff” and cleavage were the reasons for the punishment, which was the result of the student wearing … jeans and a sweatshirt.
Emily posted photos of Hailey’s outfit on Twitter, where the school has an active account; she even tagged @LTHSPrincipal to get the attention of the district. While the school has yet to respond to the social call out, others familiar with the school are responding with disappointment.
According to Hailey’s own replies, as well as one of another student at the school, she was reported by male classmates for exposing her cleavage. Although it seems there’s no cleavage to see, the school followed up on the reports and gave her a detention, according to Hailey, who tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she finds it important to speak up about any that she believes is wrong.
“I’m actually going to college in NYC for political science and women and gender studies, and I plan on being in many clubs that raise awareness for LGBTQA+ people, women, and people of all kinds,” she says. “I want to leave a message and help raise awareness for issues such as what I was dress coded for.”
Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to the school for comment, and will update this story with any new information.
But for people included in the dialogue, the most frustrating part is what students say is not a new issue for the school. In Emily’s tweet about the latest incident she writes, “It’s almost like we didn’t have a meeting with @LTHSPrincipal to change the issue of girls constantly being shamed & taken out of class for their normal outfits?” According to tweets from August of this year, the high school had already been pressured into reversing a policy that said administrators would take photos of any students who broke the dress code.
After one student named Farrin Khan created an online petition against it, the school held a meeting and eventually revised the short-lived rule. The updated dress code was posted to the school’s Facebook page.
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