If Tony Alarcon doesn’t have a problem with the clothes his 13-year-old wears then he doesn’t think the school district where she goes to school should either.
That’s why he was upset when Fisher Middle School in Los Gatos, California told his daughter, Demetra Alarcon, that the romper she was wearing was distracting to boys and too short.
“When I got dress coded one-time last week, they said my bra strap was showing,” Demetra told The Mercury News. “Lord forbid I might be wearing a bra.”
The school district asked Alarcon to bring his daughter a change of clothes and he did, a spaghetti strap tank top and shorts which the administration didn’t approve of either.
“I mean, today its 90 degrees outside and she’s wearing leggings because she doesn’t want to be dress-coded for wearing shorts,” Alarcon said, according to CBS Local. “And it’s not OK. It needs to change.”
Thin strapped tank tops aren’t allowed and the shorts didn’t have a 4-inch seam.
“Students are expected to wear clothes that are suitable for the school activities in which they participate,” a statement from the Los Gatos Union School District read.
Alarcon says that the dress code seems to unfairly target females. Though the dress code prevents boys from wearing hats, Demetra said they are rarely dress-coded for doing so.
“Fisher has a dress code policy which is clothing specific,” Alarcon said. “Most of the clothing mentioned are women’s clothing like halter tops, spaghetti straps. We have to have dress codes that are fair and reasonable and that don’t cause them emotion issues; cause them to question their bodies or feel like they’re sex symbols at 13-years-old. Because they’re not. They’re just kids.”
Alarcon started a discussion about the district’s dress code policy on NextDoor.com social media site and where many parents said they were concerned that the dress code sends girls negative messages about their body.
“Your post has reminded me of some fairly serious body image issues of my own that have stemmed from our cultural shaming and sexualizing of girls’ bodies,” one woman wrote in their discussion.
Alacron’s concern over the dress code has led the Los Gatos Union School District to reevaluate their dress code.
Superintendent Diana G. Abbati said that the district held a meeting about it on Monday night and that the community will learn more about their plans for the dress code in the future.
Hopefully, the code will allow girls to feel comfortable in their own skin.
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