The list of quizzically offensive things that can violate a dress code policy just keeps growing — we can now add (supposedly) exposed collarbone to the mix. Last week, Stephanie Hughes, a teen in Kentucky, was was sent home from Woodford County High School for her "inappropriate" outfit. It wasn’t the jeans, tank top, or sweater that prompted the school to call Hughes’ mother, Stacie Dunn. It was Hughes’ exposed collarbones, which the school claims “may distract their male classmates,” according to a post Dunn put on her Facebook, along with a photo of her daughter’s purportedly revealing getup. “This is ridiculous! Parents are being called away from their important jobs and students are missing important class time because they are showing their collarbones!” Dunn wrote on Facebook.
Woodford County High School is already pretty familiar with dress code drama — in May, another student at the school, Maggie Sunseri, made a documentary entitled Shame: A Documentary on School Dress Code. Dunn started a Change.org petition on Friday to rectify the issue: It’s called “Help our students change Woodford County High School dress code,” which proposes an amended dress code. There are currently over 4,000 supporters.
As ridiculous as it is to boot a student for exposed collarbone, there have been a number of equally as weird dress code violations. To wit: a 5-year-old’s exposed shoulders violating a dress code or a high schooler being kicked out of prom for wearing a dress with an exposed back, despite her school prom dress code specifically allowing for backless dresses.
There are all sorts of questionable dress code issues in the workplace as well; last month, a J.C. Penney employee was sent home for wearing shorts — which were purchased in the department store’s career section. Ultimately, dress code violations and incidents almost always involve women and can seem incredibly arbitrary — they always seem to put the blame on the women and what they’re wearing (or not wearing).
There might be a happy ending for Hughes and her peers at Woodford County High School, however. On Saturday, Dunn posted an update on her Change.org petition: “The principal met with a group of high school students and came to an agreement on a reasonable dress code change proposal and are taking it before the school board next week!!!!”
If the amended code gets passed, it's a small victory for women (and arbitrarily inappropriate female body parts) everywhere.
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