High school dress codes are tricky. Whether students have the freedom to wear jeans and tees or are boxed into more restrictive uniforms, there’s no question that what we’re taught to wear and not wear in our early years shapes us. This is particularly true for young girls, who often receive mixed messages about equality between the sexes.
Friday, according to Yahoo Style, Sophia Abuabara, a female high school student in San Antonio, Texas was told her thigh-grazing long-sleeved T-shirt dress was too short. Sophia was then instructed by the vice principal, Melissa Grijalva, to call her mother and have her bring a change of clothes.
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Meanwhile, a fellow male student was photographed wearing what could be deemed an outfit baring an equal amount of skin. According to Sophia, his style of stress, of course, frequently goes unnoticed by the administration at Tom C. Clark High School.
Sophia’s mother, Rosey, posted a photo including her daughter and the male student in a side-by-side comparison on her personal Instagram account. The male student chimed in, after realizing he was the boy in the photo.
“Hello! I’m the guy in that picture. (idk how I feel about people taking pictures of me but thanks for blurring my face at least),” he said. “I think it’s important to note the context of my clothing, I didn’t wear that around school all day, those were my workout clothes and I changed before going to the weight room after school.”
Rosey responded, and clarified that he was meant to be used as merely an example of a larger problem. “Yeah, we blurred your face. We are not picking on you specifically, but really wanted to point out that there are boys that dress this way at school. Lots of guys use ‘chubbies,’ which are shorter than my daughter’s skirt,” she commented. “I’m sure you’re seen them around. (Again, not you personally) boys can wear shorts to school in 100 degree weather, and the girls cannot. That’s just sexist.”
The boy followed up in agreeing that the rules do seem to send conflicting messages to the sexes. “Well, I think the problem is not so much with the boys who wear them as it is with the administration and an uneven application of the rules (which I do acknowledge exists, and do not support),” he said in a lengthy response.
However, according to Yahoo Style, one of the biggest issues though was how aggressively the school handled the matter. Rosey explained the entire debacle in a video posted to Facebook. She also noted that she would indeed be contacting the ACLU.