“These Are My Babies”: Dad Strips Down At School Board Meeting To Make A Point On Dress Code
It’s not uncommon to see that a new school board meeting controversy has reached the headlines now. After all, each parent has a unique perspective on the best way to educate their children, and the idea of entrusting this vital responsibility to others doesn’t sit well with all of them.
The most recent example of the complexities of finding common grounds when it comes to school policies took place in Gilbert, Arizona, when a father stripped down to a tank top and short jean shorts to protest the changes in the district’s dress code policy.
A father from Arizona stripped down to a crop top and short shorts to prove his point about a new lax student dress code
Image credits: AZFamily | Arizona News
“Under the proposed policy, this would be appropriate in a classroom,” Ira Latham said at a Sep. 20 meeting as he took off his shirt and pants at the podium to show a more revealing outfit.
Discussions to establish a more flexible dress code at the Higley Unified School District began in May.
The new proposed policy established that “clothing must cover all private body parts and/or undergarments and must not be see-through. Undergarment waistbands and/or straps that are incidentally visible under clothing are permitted; however, undergarments may not be worn as clothing.”
“Under the proposed policy, this would be appropriate in a classroom,” he said
Image credits: AZFamily | Arizona News
Unlike the previous rules, which were installed in 2001, students would now be permitted to expose their chest, abdomen, and midriff.
Latham, who has four children who study in the district, believes that the new dress code would interfere with the learning process by creating unwanted distractions.
“As a parent, I expect the district to be able to enforce policies that help my children be able to go to class and know how they can contribute to a safe classroom environment, as well as limiting the needless distractions in class,” he said.
The new policy allows students to expose their chest, abdomen, and midriff as long as they cover their private parts
Image credits: AZFamily | Arizona News
“This policy does not do that. I also think that it brings a lot of unnecessary pressure on teachers having to deal with the vagueness of this policy.”
The only way he could make a statement about the lax rules, he explained, was by demonstrating what they would look like on his own body.
“Because I have no other way to describe my concerns about this policy, I’ll do an object lesson,” he said before removing his clothes.
“Now, if you ask me, this is inappropriate for a board meeting. If you have a dress code policy that allows this in a classroom, it does not promote a safe classroom environment.”
The governing board president, Tiffany Schulz, argued that the old dress code disproportionally targeted female students
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
Another governing board member, Anna Van Hoek, advocated for keeping the more modest dress code, arguing that it prepared students for entering the workforce and that it was synonymous with “self-respect.”
“If we are prepping our children to be college and career-ready, then they need to learn to be able to have self-respect, and that doesn’t include showing off their body parts,” she stated, a concern that was shared by Latham.
The dad of four later told NBC: “The dress code that they wanted to get to is just basically a dress code for a public pool. Make sure that kids cover their underwear, and that’s about it,” Latham said.
You can watch Latham’s dramatic demonstration below
In contrast, the governing board president, Tiffany Schulz, argued that the existing rules disproportionately targeted female students, as they are the ones who commonly wear tank tops and crop tops.
“We’re saying that they need to cover up because of the way it might make someone else feel, and that is wrong,” Schulz said.
The board president said that teachers needed to focus on teaching, not on measuring a student’s shirt or making her feel “uncomfortable.”
Amanda Wade, another governing board member, backed Schulz’s ideas: “These are kids. They’re not at a job and I recognize at the end of the day this is the most job that they have but we need to allow freedom,” she explained.
Despite Latham’s dramatic demonstration, the school board voted 3-2 in favor of updating the dress code policy.
However, other school districts have gone in the opposite direction.
Mississippi’s Madison, Rankin, and Hinds County districts have prohibited crop tops and established that short and long-sleeved shirts must cover the stomach. Under the new policy, pants are not allowed to have holes, and certain skirt lengths are not permitted.
Many people agreed with the dad, saying that traditional uniforms are a better alternative
Others expressed their disapproval of the father’s point, saying that clothes don’t interfere with the learning process
How about teaching other people not to OGGLE AND BLAME WOMEN! 🤦🏽♀️
It's about what it teaches women..hey girl, if you dress seductively with all your accoutrement showing the boys are going to get ga ga over you, you'll have lots and lots of attention and will learn that your body can produce a type of power. Hey 16 year old, don't like that math score? That's OK, put in a tight pair of jeans, and a really snug shirt that pushes your breast up and out, then lean over your male teachers desk and ask nicely for him to change the grade. It will work, promise, oh and if you want to be more popular, better get into the fashion,.
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How is how children dress a schools concern? If parents want THEIR kids to dress a certain way that's THEIR responsibilty. And dressing how others want you to has nothing to do with self respect.
Teach your boys to respect all girls and women no matter what they are wearing.
Wise up. It's Arizona, it's hotter than the surface of the sun, even with air conditioning. All that you've told us, dad, is that you are no different than the average male in viewing a girl's/woman's body as something to be sexualized. If you are so worried, why don't you advocate putting blinders on boys/men? Truly, this just sickens me. Teach boys to not view girls as sexual objects.
Yup, get all the lads blindfolds and teach them to echolocate if they lack the self-discipline to not stare.
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T Shultz is right, most school dress codes do disproportionately target girls!!! I'm with the school board here
If you would wear it to a job interview, church, a funeral, or your grandparent's birthday party, then I guess you can wear it to school, too.
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As a woman, I expect you to raise your boys to NOT objectify the girls in their class. If you are ogling people, that's a YOU problem and you need to fix it.
As a woman. We need to teach girls to have self respect and not dress like skanks
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Always females being the focal point of what's distracting and what's modest. Males can just go around in their skivvies and no one would bat an eye, or deem it too distracting. Geez, I wonder why. Probably because society is so used to it, it's legal and hardly anyone tells a man to put a shirt on when they're outside or at home. Doesn't matter their physique, either. Whereas females, even when we're at the beach/pool, the gym, outside in our own yards, etc, if we're wearing something that shows more than just our limbs, we'd either better be fit and beautiful or people will lose their s**t.
As a 15 yo girl in highschool I think a certain dresscode is ok but not exagerrated ones. Like a minimum length for shorts(preferably mid-thigh bc as a girl it's almost impossible to find longer ones), a minimum lenght for tops(like right above the belly button) and an about 2 finger minimum strap on shoulderless tops. And ofc HOODIES please and ripped jeans I don't see the issue with those. And these should apply to all people: guys, girls, non-binary etc. Also, I want to add that the "distracting the boys" thing is absolutely pathetic
I don't understand the reason for measuring the straps on clothes, can you please explain that one?
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I don't understand how difficult it is to standardize it: Minimum torso coverage is a sleeveless t-shirt. Minimum leg coverage are shorts to a minimum of a 4" inseam. This goes for every body of every gender identification. There's plenty of room for comfort and individuality within those parameters.
Because what they decide is the minimum or whatever may not be what is available at stores. This would mean shopping online, which is a crapshoot, which means it will yet again disproportionately affect the poor and women. I loathe cold shoulder shirts. For like 2 years every freakin top at stores had cold shoulders or were built for 80 year olds.
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These are the same people who complain about "government oversight", support book bans, etc but now want the school district to police what their own children wear. You can't make up this level of stupidity and hypocrisy. Parents should determine what their kids wear. Schools shouldn't be judging and policing girls dress and bodies. Kids changing into something else than what they left the house in is not the school's responsibility. Maybe be a better and more involved parent instead demanding and making it someone else's job.
They want the schools to police what -other- people's children wear. They also want to dictate what other people's children can read, and what they can be taught (and reality is not a good enough reason to teach something if they disapprove).
Load More Replies... Wait...that guy is concerned that his daughters may dress a certain way because that school is going to have less strict rules? If he's concerned how they dress Isn't it his job make sure they dress in a way he thinks is appropriate? Man....how I hate it that men still want to tell women how to dress. That is some Taliban shít right there, under the disguise of concerned parenting
Bingo!! What a control freak jerk he is!! Mind your own frigging biz, sir!
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Dress coding was pretty traumatic for me when I was in high school. It was often an excuse for our faculty to target certain girls. Cheerleaders, even if their skirts didn't meet the established dress code, were never targeted. Friends of mine were, often, as was I. I dressed very punk/goth. We were constantly nit-picked for everything. It's humiliating to be the subject of discussion because a group of faculty are reducing you to the length of your asymmetrical skirt even when you are wearing leggings and whether you can wear it or not. No one cared about the student. In fact, I was lectured, wasted 45 minutes of class time because my band shirt showed a sliver of midriff as I got the books out of my locker. Told I'd never get anywhere in life. Because of a dress code violation. Now, in my job, I can wear what I want. My professional qualifications and who I am are the same no matter what I wear. Dress codes are about control and do more harm than good
The problem is not who's showing some skin, but who gets so distracted by it that needs to regulate how women or girls dress. And I'm not only thinking schools for that matter.
Honestly all that happens when you cover people up is the body becomes MORE sexualized...not less.
Having grown up in a free, liberal European country 😉 in the 90s/00s I have to say that until today I do not understand the prude US approach! Yes, we've worn occasionally that spaghetti-tank-top, the hot-pants and not to mention every kind of uncomfortable clunky/tiny high heels. And never ever have we been a distraction when it came to having classes. Simply because the boys and teachers were used to it. What got really embarrassing in hindsight was the lack of style (but hey what do you expect from the late 90s/early 00s?)! The only reason/conflict I've seen were rich kids clothes vs not rich kids one. Not everyone was so fortunate to have parents to buy them Adidas/Puma/Airwalk/Nike sneakers, Miss sixty/Levi's trousers or Karl Kani, Nike, Fubu, Stüssy pullovers! So what I would have advocated for (when being forced) were school uniforms. Also when looking now at all the embarrassing clothing choices! However, this US-man, in my opinion, comes over like an absolute creep!
This father is an idiot. He's not going up there to defend his daughters, giving some excuse like dressing more formally or whatever would learn them self respect. He's going up there, defending his idiot sons, because they won't focus on their studies because the girls dress for ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN DEGREE FAHRENHEIT WEATHER. You know what'd help? Sex ed. Once you've seen everything, nothing interests you.
I think we're losing the crop top battle with my 16yo daughter. Every generation goes through this. Whatever the trend is for that time, the parents think its inappropriate, the kids think its fine, and we do the best we can do while trying to limit the therapy costs of our children when they're adults. Not sure this dad was very successful at that with this stunt, but I'm sure he's doing his best too. I empathize with him but also, this sort of thing is very much the school board's business and loosening stricter rules isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially when they tend to target one group of people.
But just make the rules uniform if they feel it targets them... Now it targets them in the opposite direction and allows them to dress slutty as boys won't be wearing tube tops
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Surprises me how many people think school uniforms are the answer. How do so many people completely forget what it was like to be a kid? School age me would've despised having g to wear a school uniform. Adult me think having uniforms in school is stupid and pointless and unnecessary too. Also as other mentioned its kinda ridiculous how the dress code and the hand wringing is almost exclusively about what girls are wearing. And I feel for that guys kids. You know they gotta be embarrassed as helk and getting teased about their dad now.
Not to mention that they are expensive, and a lot of families can't afford them. The closest city to me does "Standard School Attire" and everybody is forever doing SSA drives for the parents who can't afford to buy two sets of clothes for their kids.
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Do uniforms ,and kids just do everything else to assert their individuality. And America is allegedly all about individuality.
I'm older, so I guess old fashioned! We had a "code". Nothing outlandish. Just a few rules, skirts a certain length and no spaghetti straps. Holes in pants were not thought of, no shorts for girls or boys. We learned just fine. Plus this was S. Calif. in the heat!!
So here's a thought why doesn't the actual PARENT (S) take responsibility for how their lil "angels" dress. This isn't a school problem it's a parent problem. Don't provide your child with inappropriate (according to you) clothing. Furthermore it's up to the PARENT to teach manners and such. There are many hateful children out there that disrespect everyone including their teachers. How the hell is this a teachers responsibility?? Sickening blaming the school for crappy parenting.
Even if they do they will just do it behind their parents backs because 'everyone else is doing it' i knew a lot of kids who did that stuff in high school. If they have their own money from jobs they will do it and just hide their clothes from their parents its not exactly a new phenomena
Load More Replies... the clothing companies just needs to stop making inappropriate and revealing clothing for kids/young teens. All this is doing is sexualizing them and you don't know who is looking at them(pedophiles)
Pedophiles are what they are no matter what their victims wear. Changing what your kids/teens wear because of them doesn't make them stop being what they are. They will still be creeps that sexualize children. It would be better to teach kids/teens how to effectively communicate, set individual boundaries, and how to respect others' individual boundaries. Adults should show the same level of respect towards kids/teens boundaries as they expect the kids/teens to show each other. This lets them learn how trustworthy adults should behave making it easier to recognize the creeps.
Load More Replies... Isn't it incredible how it's men who have issues with what girls wear? Maybe men should spend a couple of years each being g exposed to the restrictions that girls get on their clothes and bodies. America seems to be getting as bad as Afghanistan in the way to tell women how they dress and behave... sorry but it's true, America is becoming an embarrassment to the western world for their incredible sexist and racial prejudices
Nothing wrong with a good school uniform - in summer we wore a blue & white check dress, in winter a shirt and grey skirt. I believe that track suits were allowed later, for winter. Boys wore pants and shirts and ties. This way the poorer kids were on the same level as the more affluent.
Imo, lax dress codes rock. Let the kids dress themselves, uniforms suck, no matter how many variations because we all become a collective, not individuals. We're caged animals, going from a uniform primary and secondary to a free dress college was at first daunting, but now it's so much better. Yeah sure, some folks distract me with their beauty, but that's 'cause they pride themselves on beauty and it's my reaction to stare. Not their fault, not them needing to cover up, my fault for lacking self-discipline. That's how it is.
What's more distracting than closes is the constant wondering if you're going to get dress-coded, and the message that this sends to young adults about their bodies.
Man, how on Earth did I manage to go successfully through school without some middle aged white guy and his sexually frustrated Karen wife telling me what to wear? We looked probably crazy at times (1980s), we had mini skirts, we had spaghetti tops because it's summer, and still it worked. even for the boys, can you imagine? To them it might have been a nice sight, but they weren't trained to think of our naked shoulders as "invitations to sex".
I understand some parts of dress code, as a way to keep people from going to overboard, and keeping kids reasonably clothed, but I also understand the boards position on it since dress codes commonly target a few specific groups (AFAB people, and POC's), and the need to change them. There's also teaching kids to be respectful of other kids, and not be rude or creepy, or literal predators just because of something someone is wearing. But I do think that making that outfit appropriate is kinda a lot for a school
cool we’ve started sexualizing minors now. This site is going to c**p. Real talk.
1) parents can regulate that their kids wear, girls don't need to be pulled from learning time just because they're tall and so all shorts are "too short". 2) that dad didn't even follow the dress code, it says underwear can't be visible or used as clothing and he is using a brallette for a shirt and his underwear is more than "incidentally showing", he rucked up his boxers for sure on purpose though.
And the "checks" are so much more degrading for females. Private and public school. Teachers walking around with rulers checking for skirt length, short length and width of tank top strap. I was sent home from private school and missed my exam because she made me unbutton my pants and show the interior tag to prove they were not made by the uniform outfitters. They were identical and had the school initials embroidered into the pant leg but the tag was different
This actually makes me so f*****g mad.why can't people just dress the way they want to?? So what if someone wants to have their stomach exposed. It's a f*****g stomach. Maybe if people stopped sexualizing the human body so much, especially that of children and teens, this wouldn't even be an issue. I feel sorry for this fathers daughter.
We are talking about hormone riddled teenagers with pretty poor self control. Yea they shouldn't but it isnt helping them by making it ok to dress minimally in the most literal sense. If it were someone in their 80s dressed like that people would be horrified
Load More Replies... You know all these rules are just discriminating agains girls and laying all potential blame on them, right? This is so ridiculous and horrific. Where I am from, there is and was never a problem with girls dressing however they like, because all children are taught to RESPECT others and not go pulling bra straps or shaming girls of „dressing inappropriately“. You know, I think women here are less self conscious and more ok with their own body, because we do not shame them for how they dress and they had the opportunity to grow and experiment. Plus: less violence against women. I was and am always able to go for a walk alone in the dark. Even in a big city like Hamburg, I never felt afraid.
My middle school cared so much about dress codes and caused so many scandals over pajama pants, parents were on the kids' sides. Then I went to high school and they just didn't care. We were lucky. They'd just make an announcement that "You are not at the beach, please don't dress like you are at the beach." and kept the school AC at like 18C/65F. Most kids had giant hoodies we'd wear to classes because it was cold AF 😅
Happy middle ground can surely be found. Midriffs and tank tops are not appropriate for anyone at most work places.
It's been proven that bullying, sexual harassment, and even predatory behavior from adults goes DOWN in uniform based schools. This just sounds like more pedophiles in charge making it easier to ogle and sexualize children. Also encouraging young girls to dress like slutty sexual objects with no self respect. Disgusting. We used to hold kids to a standard of classier dressing and behavior but now it's all gone out the window. School isn't for self expression, just like work isn't. School is supposed to be a prep environment for work. It's just so awful the low self worth girls are being taught in modern pop culture and now pedophiles are their supposed safe adults. Just abhorrent.
Any sources? Cause to my knowledge, all of that is incorrect.
Load More Replies... I think most of agree that there are limits to what's appropriate. So the issue isn't whether dress should be 'policed', it's what the limits should be and who should do the policing. And although we should make sure that boys are taught to respect women and not objectify them, thinking that you can 'teach' 14 year old boys to not be distracted by pretty girls in revealing clothes is naive. You might as well tell them to stop eating. It's just a biological fact of being a young teenage boy. Does that mean the girls have to adjust? No. Downvote away!
You're part of the problem. Accepting that boys objectifying girls is somehow built-in to their physiology and a 'natural', uncontrollable behaviour. All it does is perpetuate the "boys will be boys" culture which starts with simple objectification but very often ends with abusive mysoginy. I was a teenage boy who was attracted to girls and spent an inordinate amount of my time trying to attract their attentions. But I can honestly say I was NEVER taught that they were just eye candy, objects to lust over and trade between friends. They were people. They were my friends, or friend's sisters. But always first and foremost PEOPLE. Young lads are perfectly capable of understanding that. The biggest crush I ever had as a teenager was a girl who dressed very conservatively- because I found her a fascinating person. And that, to me, was her beauty. Do you think young lads in the 1910s didn't feel sexual attraction to girls just because they were wearing floor-length dresses?
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I've always been a fan of uniforms. Wore them for 15 years, including nursing school. Less peer pressure from other kids to wear certain clothes. And God forbid you were poor- the teasing and ridicule is awful. Less concern about what to wear for the kids.
Screw the uniforms etc Kids should be allowed.to wear what they want to and whatever makes them comfortable..I live in Chatham Ontario Canada, and of all the schools here they DONT have a dress code except two catholic schools have uniforms but they also have a dress down day where they can wear what they want...every school here doesn't have a dress code...as they don't believe in it...
Im writing this again, I lived 20 years of my life on Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, were its super hot all year long. Normal way of dressing for young people is shorts and crop tops, even some old people lol. But for school, noone would go dressed like this, if you do they send you straight home. You going to school not to the beach, they teached us dress for the moment, and there's a moment for everything. Theres a moment to go and study and theres a moment to go to the beach. I honestly don't get the US.
Your mandatory conformity ideas aren't binding on anybody else. Your schools got it wrong. That's their problem, not anybody else's. Also, I'm wondering how you managed to live somewhere for 20 years without noticing that it is part of the US.
Load More Replies... I don't consider the lower part of the chest to be inappropriate or sexual, I think my school is much more lenient on dress code rules and it isn't a distraction, I just see more people expressing themselves.
How about teaching other people not to OGGLE AND BLAME WOMEN! 🤦🏽♀️
It's about what it teaches women..hey girl, if you dress seductively with all your accoutrement showing the boys are going to get ga ga over you, you'll have lots and lots of attention and will learn that your body can produce a type of power. Hey 16 year old, don't like that math score? That's OK, put in a tight pair of jeans, and a really snug shirt that pushes your breast up and out, then lean over your male teachers desk and ask nicely for him to change the grade. It will work, promise, oh and if you want to be more popular, better get into the fashion,.
Load More Replies... How is how children dress a schools concern? If parents want THEIR kids to dress a certain way that's THEIR responsibilty. And dressing how others want you to has nothing to do with self respect.
Teach your boys to respect all girls and women no matter what they are wearing.
Wise up. It's Arizona, it's hotter than the surface of the sun, even with air conditioning. All that you've told us, dad, is that you are no different than the average male in viewing a girl's/woman's body as something to be sexualized. If you are so worried, why don't you advocate putting blinders on boys/men? Truly, this just sickens me. Teach boys to not view girls as sexual objects.
Yup, get all the lads blindfolds and teach them to echolocate if they lack the self-discipline to not stare.
Load More Replies... T Shultz is right, most school dress codes do disproportionately target girls!!! I'm with the school board here
If you would wear it to a job interview, church, a funeral, or your grandparent's birthday party, then I guess you can wear it to school, too.
Load More Replies... As a woman, I expect you to raise your boys to NOT objectify the girls in their class. If you are ogling people, that's a YOU problem and you need to fix it.
As a woman. We need to teach girls to have self respect and not dress like skanks
Load More Replies... Always females being the focal point of what's distracting and what's modest. Males can just go around in their skivvies and no one would bat an eye, or deem it too distracting. Geez, I wonder why. Probably because society is so used to it, it's legal and hardly anyone tells a man to put a shirt on when they're outside or at home. Doesn't matter their physique, either. Whereas females, even when we're at the beach/pool, the gym, outside in our own yards, etc, if we're wearing something that shows more than just our limbs, we'd either better be fit and beautiful or people will lose their s**t.
As a 15 yo girl in highschool I think a certain dresscode is ok but not exagerrated ones. Like a minimum length for shorts(preferably mid-thigh bc as a girl it's almost impossible to find longer ones), a minimum lenght for tops(like right above the belly button) and an about 2 finger minimum strap on shoulderless tops. And ofc HOODIES please and ripped jeans I don't see the issue with those. And these should apply to all people: guys, girls, non-binary etc. Also, I want to add that the "distracting the boys" thing is absolutely pathetic
I don't understand the reason for measuring the straps on clothes, can you please explain that one?
Load More Replies... I don't understand how difficult it is to standardize it: Minimum torso coverage is a sleeveless t-shirt. Minimum leg coverage are shorts to a minimum of a 4" inseam. This goes for every body of every gender identification. There's plenty of room for comfort and individuality within those parameters.
Because what they decide is the minimum or whatever may not be what is available at stores. This would mean shopping online, which is a crapshoot, which means it will yet again disproportionately affect the poor and women. I loathe cold shoulder shirts. For like 2 years every freakin top at stores had cold shoulders or were built for 80 year olds.
Load More Replies... These are the same people who complain about "government oversight", support book bans, etc but now want the school district to police what their own children wear. You can't make up this level of stupidity and hypocrisy. Parents should determine what their kids wear. Schools shouldn't be judging and policing girls dress and bodies. Kids changing into something else than what they left the house in is not the school's responsibility. Maybe be a better and more involved parent instead demanding and making it someone else's job.
They want the schools to police what -other- people's children wear. They also want to dictate what other people's children can read, and what they can be taught (and reality is not a good enough reason to teach something if they disapprove).
Load More Replies... Wait...that guy is concerned that his daughters may dress a certain way because that school is going to have less strict rules? If he's concerned how they dress Isn't it his job make sure they dress in a way he thinks is appropriate? Man....how I hate it that men still want to tell women how to dress. That is some Taliban shít right there, under the disguise of concerned parenting
Bingo!! What a control freak jerk he is!! Mind your own frigging biz, sir!
Load More Replies... Dress coding was pretty traumatic for me when I was in high school. It was often an excuse for our faculty to target certain girls. Cheerleaders, even if their skirts didn't meet the established dress code, were never targeted. Friends of mine were, often, as was I. I dressed very punk/goth. We were constantly nit-picked for everything. It's humiliating to be the subject of discussion because a group of faculty are reducing you to the length of your asymmetrical skirt even when you are wearing leggings and whether you can wear it or not. No one cared about the student. In fact, I was lectured, wasted 45 minutes of class time because my band shirt showed a sliver of midriff as I got the books out of my locker. Told I'd never get anywhere in life. Because of a dress code violation. Now, in my job, I can wear what I want. My professional qualifications and who I am are the same no matter what I wear. Dress codes are about control and do more harm than good
The problem is not who's showing some skin, but who gets so distracted by it that needs to regulate how women or girls dress. And I'm not only thinking schools for that matter.
Honestly all that happens when you cover people up is the body becomes MORE sexualized...not less.
Having grown up in a free, liberal European country 😉 in the 90s/00s I have to say that until today I do not understand the prude US approach! Yes, we've worn occasionally that spaghetti-tank-top, the hot-pants and not to mention every kind of uncomfortable clunky/tiny high heels. And never ever have we been a distraction when it came to having classes. Simply because the boys and teachers were used to it. What got really embarrassing in hindsight was the lack of style (but hey what do you expect from the late 90s/early 00s?)! The only reason/conflict I've seen were rich kids clothes vs not rich kids one. Not everyone was so fortunate to have parents to buy them Adidas/Puma/Airwalk/Nike sneakers, Miss sixty/Levi's trousers or Karl Kani, Nike, Fubu, Stüssy pullovers! So what I would have advocated for (when being forced) were school uniforms. Also when looking now at all the embarrassing clothing choices! However, this US-man, in my opinion, comes over like an absolute creep!
This father is an idiot. He's not going up there to defend his daughters, giving some excuse like dressing more formally or whatever would learn them self respect. He's going up there, defending his idiot sons, because they won't focus on their studies because the girls dress for ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN DEGREE FAHRENHEIT WEATHER. You know what'd help? Sex ed. Once you've seen everything, nothing interests you.
I think we're losing the crop top battle with my 16yo daughter. Every generation goes through this. Whatever the trend is for that time, the parents think its inappropriate, the kids think its fine, and we do the best we can do while trying to limit the therapy costs of our children when they're adults. Not sure this dad was very successful at that with this stunt, but I'm sure he's doing his best too. I empathize with him but also, this sort of thing is very much the school board's business and loosening stricter rules isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially when they tend to target one group of people.
But just make the rules uniform if they feel it targets them... Now it targets them in the opposite direction and allows them to dress slutty as boys won't be wearing tube tops
Load More Replies... Surprises me how many people think school uniforms are the answer. How do so many people completely forget what it was like to be a kid? School age me would've despised having g to wear a school uniform. Adult me think having uniforms in school is stupid and pointless and unnecessary too. Also as other mentioned its kinda ridiculous how the dress code and the hand wringing is almost exclusively about what girls are wearing. And I feel for that guys kids. You know they gotta be embarrassed as helk and getting teased about their dad now.
Not to mention that they are expensive, and a lot of families can't afford them. The closest city to me does "Standard School Attire" and everybody is forever doing SSA drives for the parents who can't afford to buy two sets of clothes for their kids.
Load More Replies... Do uniforms ,and kids just do everything else to assert their individuality. And America is allegedly all about individuality.
I'm older, so I guess old fashioned! We had a "code". Nothing outlandish. Just a few rules, skirts a certain length and no spaghetti straps. Holes in pants were not thought of, no shorts for girls or boys. We learned just fine. Plus this was S. Calif. in the heat!!
So here's a thought why doesn't the actual PARENT (S) take responsibility for how their lil "angels" dress. This isn't a school problem it's a parent problem. Don't provide your child with inappropriate (according to you) clothing. Furthermore it's up to the PARENT to teach manners and such. There are many hateful children out there that disrespect everyone including their teachers. How the hell is this a teachers responsibility?? Sickening blaming the school for crappy parenting.
Even if they do they will just do it behind their parents backs because 'everyone else is doing it' i knew a lot of kids who did that stuff in high school. If they have their own money from jobs they will do it and just hide their clothes from their parents its not exactly a new phenomena
Load More Replies... the clothing companies just needs to stop making inappropriate and revealing clothing for kids/young teens. All this is doing is sexualizing them and you don't know who is looking at them(pedophiles)
Pedophiles are what they are no matter what their victims wear. Changing what your kids/teens wear because of them doesn't make them stop being what they are. They will still be creeps that sexualize children. It would be better to teach kids/teens how to effectively communicate, set individual boundaries, and how to respect others' individual boundaries. Adults should show the same level of respect towards kids/teens boundaries as they expect the kids/teens to show each other. This lets them learn how trustworthy adults should behave making it easier to recognize the creeps.
Load More Replies... Isn't it incredible how it's men who have issues with what girls wear? Maybe men should spend a couple of years each being g exposed to the restrictions that girls get on their clothes and bodies. America seems to be getting as bad as Afghanistan in the way to tell women how they dress and behave... sorry but it's true, America is becoming an embarrassment to the western world for their incredible sexist and racial prejudices
Nothing wrong with a good school uniform - in summer we wore a blue & white check dress, in winter a shirt and grey skirt. I believe that track suits were allowed later, for winter. Boys wore pants and shirts and ties. This way the poorer kids were on the same level as the more affluent.
Imo, lax dress codes rock. Let the kids dress themselves, uniforms suck, no matter how many variations because we all become a collective, not individuals. We're caged animals, going from a uniform primary and secondary to a free dress college was at first daunting, but now it's so much better. Yeah sure, some folks distract me with their beauty, but that's 'cause they pride themselves on beauty and it's my reaction to stare. Not their fault, not them needing to cover up, my fault for lacking self-discipline. That's how it is.
What's more distracting than closes is the constant wondering if you're going to get dress-coded, and the message that this sends to young adults about their bodies.
Man, how on Earth did I manage to go successfully through school without some middle aged white guy and his sexually frustrated Karen wife telling me what to wear? We looked probably crazy at times (1980s), we had mini skirts, we had spaghetti tops because it's summer, and still it worked. even for the boys, can you imagine? To them it might have been a nice sight, but they weren't trained to think of our naked shoulders as "invitations to sex".
I understand some parts of dress code, as a way to keep people from going to overboard, and keeping kids reasonably clothed, but I also understand the boards position on it since dress codes commonly target a few specific groups (AFAB people, and POC's), and the need to change them. There's also teaching kids to be respectful of other kids, and not be rude or creepy, or literal predators just because of something someone is wearing. But I do think that making that outfit appropriate is kinda a lot for a school
cool we’ve started sexualizing minors now. This site is going to c**p. Real talk.
1) parents can regulate that their kids wear, girls don't need to be pulled from learning time just because they're tall and so all shorts are "too short". 2) that dad didn't even follow the dress code, it says underwear can't be visible or used as clothing and he is using a brallette for a shirt and his underwear is more than "incidentally showing", he rucked up his boxers for sure on purpose though.
And the "checks" are so much more degrading for females. Private and public school. Teachers walking around with rulers checking for skirt length, short length and width of tank top strap. I was sent home from private school and missed my exam because she made me unbutton my pants and show the interior tag to prove they were not made by the uniform outfitters. They were identical and had the school initials embroidered into the pant leg but the tag was different
This actually makes me so f*****g mad.why can't people just dress the way they want to?? So what if someone wants to have their stomach exposed. It's a f*****g stomach. Maybe if people stopped sexualizing the human body so much, especially that of children and teens, this wouldn't even be an issue. I feel sorry for this fathers daughter.
We are talking about hormone riddled teenagers with pretty poor self control. Yea they shouldn't but it isnt helping them by making it ok to dress minimally in the most literal sense. If it were someone in their 80s dressed like that people would be horrified
Load More Replies... You know all these rules are just discriminating agains girls and laying all potential blame on them, right? This is so ridiculous and horrific. Where I am from, there is and was never a problem with girls dressing however they like, because all children are taught to RESPECT others and not go pulling bra straps or shaming girls of „dressing inappropriately“. You know, I think women here are less self conscious and more ok with their own body, because we do not shame them for how they dress and they had the opportunity to grow and experiment. Plus: less violence against women. I was and am always able to go for a walk alone in the dark. Even in a big city like Hamburg, I never felt afraid.
My middle school cared so much about dress codes and caused so many scandals over pajama pants, parents were on the kids' sides. Then I went to high school and they just didn't care. We were lucky. They'd just make an announcement that "You are not at the beach, please don't dress like you are at the beach." and kept the school AC at like 18C/65F. Most kids had giant hoodies we'd wear to classes because it was cold AF 😅
Happy middle ground can surely be found. Midriffs and tank tops are not appropriate for anyone at most work places.
It's been proven that bullying, sexual harassment, and even predatory behavior from adults goes DOWN in uniform based schools. This just sounds like more pedophiles in charge making it easier to ogle and sexualize children. Also encouraging young girls to dress like slutty sexual objects with no self respect. Disgusting. We used to hold kids to a standard of classier dressing and behavior but now it's all gone out the window. School isn't for self expression, just like work isn't. School is supposed to be a prep environment for work. It's just so awful the low self worth girls are being taught in modern pop culture and now pedophiles are their supposed safe adults. Just abhorrent.
Any sources? Cause to my knowledge, all of that is incorrect.
Load More Replies... I think most of agree that there are limits to what's appropriate. So the issue isn't whether dress should be 'policed', it's what the limits should be and who should do the policing. And although we should make sure that boys are taught to respect women and not objectify them, thinking that you can 'teach' 14 year old boys to not be distracted by pretty girls in revealing clothes is naive. You might as well tell them to stop eating. It's just a biological fact of being a young teenage boy. Does that mean the girls have to adjust? No. Downvote away!
You're part of the problem. Accepting that boys objectifying girls is somehow built-in to their physiology and a 'natural', uncontrollable behaviour. All it does is perpetuate the "boys will be boys" culture which starts with simple objectification but very often ends with abusive mysoginy. I was a teenage boy who was attracted to girls and spent an inordinate amount of my time trying to attract their attentions. But I can honestly say I was NEVER taught that they were just eye candy, objects to lust over and trade between friends. They were people. They were my friends, or friend's sisters. But always first and foremost PEOPLE. Young lads are perfectly capable of understanding that. The biggest crush I ever had as a teenager was a girl who dressed very conservatively- because I found her a fascinating person. And that, to me, was her beauty. Do you think young lads in the 1910s didn't feel sexual attraction to girls just because they were wearing floor-length dresses?
Load More Replies... I've always been a fan of uniforms. Wore them for 15 years, including nursing school. Less peer pressure from other kids to wear certain clothes. And God forbid you were poor- the teasing and ridicule is awful. Less concern about what to wear for the kids.
Screw the uniforms etc Kids should be allowed.to wear what they want to and whatever makes them comfortable..I live in Chatham Ontario Canada, and of all the schools here they DONT have a dress code except two catholic schools have uniforms but they also have a dress down day where they can wear what they want...every school here doesn't have a dress code...as they don't believe in it...
Im writing this again, I lived 20 years of my life on Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, were its super hot all year long. Normal way of dressing for young people is shorts and crop tops, even some old people lol. But for school, noone would go dressed like this, if you do they send you straight home. You going to school not to the beach, they teached us dress for the moment, and there's a moment for everything. Theres a moment to go and study and theres a moment to go to the beach. I honestly don't get the US.
Your mandatory conformity ideas aren't binding on anybody else. Your schools got it wrong. That's their problem, not anybody else's. Also, I'm wondering how you managed to live somewhere for 20 years without noticing that it is part of the US.
Load More Replies... I don't consider the lower part of the chest to be inappropriate or sexual, I think my school is much more lenient on dress code rules and it isn't a distraction, I just see more people expressing themselves.
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