Almost 200 students — 90 percent of them girls — at a Staten Island high school have been given detention since the beginning of the school year when a new super-strict dress code was implemented. Now, after being sent home to change, forced to wear baggy sweatshirts over their outfits, or shamed in front of their classmates for daring to wear shorts, some students are reclaiming their right to proudly don the ever-risqué tank top.
As school dress codes go, the one at Tottenville High School is pretty strict. According to Gothamist, the school doesn’t allow “muscle shirts, wallet chains and spiked jewelry” (lol Staten Island), but the majority of clothes banned are typically worn by female students: tank tops, short-shorts, miniskirts, leggings, skinny jeans, headbands, and halter tops are all a no-no. Further complicating the controversial dress code is the fact that the school is un-air-conditioned, which can make classrooms unbearably hot during August and September.
The new rules aren’t sitting well with some parents and students, some of whom have decided to stage a protest against the dress code this week by rebelling and donning their favorite leggings and other “distracting” clothing.
“Tottenville should just be an all boys school considering this dress code is only affecting the girls,” one female student pointed out, according to Gothamist.
After all, it’s hard to see how tank tops are “dangerous or interfere with the learning and teaching process” (unless you’re a total creep).
