A Texas High School Reportedly Showed a Dress Code Violation Video Featuring Only Female Students
On this week’s edition of controversial high school dress codes, a Texas school is facing backlash for reportedly showing students a video that solely focused on female students' wardrobe violations. Students from Marcus High School, in Flower Mound, shared their outrage over the video on social media and garnered significant support online.
According to Yahoo Lifestyle, last week two female students from Marcus High School jumped on Twitter to share information about the video’s alleged biased representation. One student, who goes by the name Lillian on Twitter, wrote, “our school showed us a dress code video today where it was only girls being dress coded (for wearing nike shorts), and then had to repeat after the teacher 'i will not wear shorts' three times... weird? or just me?” Another student named Cat also tweeted, “Today my school was shown this video. So sad how ONLY girls are shown as the violators. I understand why my school has a dresscode, but what about the boys who wear shorts, or show their shoulders? It’s 2018...Why are we still over-sexualizing teen girls?”
Cat’s tweet was accompanied by footage of the actual video shown to students. In the video, a group of female students were featured walking through the halls wearing athletic shorts and oversize tops that covered their shorts. An older woman, who appears to be a school administrator, ushers the young students into a classroom with the sign “Dresscode Violators” posted next to the door. Students in the room were instructed to repeat several times, "I will not wear athletic shorts." M.I.A.’s song “Bad Girls” played in the background of the video clip.
According to Yahoo Lifestyle, Marcus High School’s principal, Will Skelton, apparently caught wind of the Twitter backlash, and one student shared what Yahoo Lifestyle reported was a screenshot of his response to the outrage in her Twitter replies: "There were several items that should have been different, including a better song choice & the representation of boys as well as the girls,” Skelton reportedly wrote. “We definitely missed the mark, and will do everything we can to make it right for our students.”
The Texas high school is one of many schools being called out for allegedly enforcing stricter dress-code policies for female students. It has been argued that unequal enforcement of dress-code policies can negatively impact female students' ability to focus, participate in class, and feel comfortable with their physical appearance.
Teen Vogue has reached out to Marcus High School for additional comment.
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