I’m so sorry. That must have been hard.
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Thank you. It was a long time ago, though, and I am almost over it 
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Yes, requiring young women to kneel for an arbitrary reason — esp. in a school — is institutionalized sexism.
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I’m glad! And I can relate. That school looks like it could be esp. hard on nonconformity.
That’s the kind of shit they pulled on us in Catholic school in the 1960’s. It has no place in the 21st century.
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It actually states that leggings are also not allowed. I feel that the rule is supposed to be leggings themselves are not allowed, because I personally feel that leggings with dress/skirt makes nearly any skirt very respectable.
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Parts of the US seem like stuck in the 18th century.
… exactly like their (perceived) enemies
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That’s on the nose. Adults should not generally presume to regulate what clothes kids can wear.
The practice of measuring skirts and haircuts is a relic of intolerant theocracies.
Schools should practice and teach tolerance of individuality, including styles of clothing.
Little intolerant sects that go the extra step of excessively regulating their more vulnerable members and subverting public institutions with intolerant policies shouldn’t be tolerated.
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Dress codes in public schools do not, as a rule, stand up in court. Free speech protects the students.
It doesn’t stop schools from trying to enforce such foolishness.
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Rasmussen_bryan already covered the gist of what I would say, but I’ll add that your speeding analogy is out of place. We’re discussing arbitrary rules put in place by adults regarding how children dress in the closed environment of school - rules that are so asinine that a conservatively-dressed girl who technically breaks the rules while not being a disruption and not wearing revealing clothing is still punished. Zero tolerance is a common reference to policies put in place in schools.
On the other hand, you bring up breaking traffic laws that are put in place for the safety of the general public. You can still have a single car accident at 3 AM, hit a deer crossing the road, or even a pedestrian who shouldn’t have been there. And traffic laws aren’t zero tolerance policies because not every cop does (or should) ticket you for going five or ten mph over the speed limit. There’s discretion there. Human judgment is allowed.
So your analogy hurts your argument because traffic laws are less thoroughly enforced that this dress code, which has less serious of an impact.
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Exactly. It’s like the cops that suspect you have drugs, don’t find any, and then illegally make you wait for a canine unit to show up so they can try to find something some more. Or in rare cases, subject the victim/“scumbag criminal” to cavity searches at the local hospital against their will.
Focusing that much on the possibility that someone is breaking the rules puts the purpose of the rules into question. Suddenly rules are an excuse to catch someone doing something wrong. It becomes an authoritarian fetish.
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Maybe…
But your sample size here is one principal. Like others have pointed out this rule isn’t uncommon in schools all across the country, so obvious other principals are either choosing to be lax on it or the females of the student body aren’t complaining yet. Look I have no issue with saying this is a bullshit rule, you have my support for narrowing it way down. But it is a rule and in the case of the school it’s more or less a law. So what is the message we are wanting to send? It’s okay to break bullshit laws cause they are dumb? That’s going to work out awesome for her in the real world. Just like I think they should be teaching tolerance, respect, and self dignity how about they throw in some consequence/reaction and real world rational thinking. My issue isn’t the rule, it’s this:
The reaction of 90% of the comments here vilify the principal for following what they see as a bullshit rule. I don’t agree with that. The school board can’t fire the principal for following the rules they have set in place - they could potentially fire him for not following them. She wanted to make a stand in protest of said rules, that’s okay to me. She violated the rule, got caught and then instead of actually making a stand she caved. She didn’t stand up for her right not to be judged, as many of you would say she surrendered to the sexist patriarchy. And in doing so she has tugged on your emotions because you thought the rule was bullshit from the beginning and she was “violated” for kneeling… No, she doesn’t have my sympathy, she would have if she looked at the principal and said “I will not kneel, I am a human being and deserved to be treat with respect and dignity.” At which point she should have left for the day and if she so chose, done it again the next day or got more girls on board to do it together, or taken it to the school board, or anything in a constructive format.
(And to clarify what @anon41977465 replyed about… She didn’t get caught up in the rule, she knew it, she willingly violated it, and then apparently didn’t think much more about what the reaction would have been… If I was her parent and she told me ahead of time what she wanted to do and why she would have my complete support - at the same time I would have warned her of the potential consequences/ramifications. If she chose to go this alone and didn’t tell me, well she should have far more to worry about than the principal wanting her to kneel. So no, I don’t buy into the kids are ignorant and she couldn’t rationalize what she was doing, if that’s truly the case then she played with fire and now has everyone’s sympathy for being burned except mine.)
No, rules are rules and laws are laws. Pretending that rules are laws is like pretending that Power Wheels are monster trucks.
“So what is the message we are wanting to send? It’s okay to break bullshit laws cause they are dumb?”
While rules are different than laws, if you want to get into it - I wouldn’t say it’s okay. I’d say it’s a citizen’s duty, within reason, to break bad laws as long as it isn’t unethical to do so. Ever heard of civil rights protests? They broke asinine laws all the time. And they did so for good reasons. I’m not saying breaking a dress code rule is anywhere near a civil rights protest, but you’re the one pretending rules are laws.
You expect a lot more of teenagers than I do. They’re not adults. Even a lot of 20 year olds are not mature enough to be considered adults. I wasn’t when I was in my early 20s. Teaching children to follow the rules when the rules have a definite purpose (safety for instance) is fine. But these zero tolerance rules that take discretion and human reason out of the decisions being made (except for the possibility of inserting an administrator’s cruelty) are rules that should be broken by students and the administrators who are supposed to enforce them.
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That, my friend, is called civil disobedience. And yes, that is exactly the message young mutants should learn to be happy mutants.
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Seriously, fuck all these rules. Every single one of them. And the assholes who think they are educating kids by enforcing them. If they are so worried about what people are wearing, then have a damned school uniform. And even that is bullshit. Just leave people the fuck alone and stop making excuses for boorish male behavior, which is what all of this is at its root.
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Sure I’ve heard of civil rights protests, but I’ve never heard of a successful one where the protester’s backed down and caved in - usually they end with unpleasant things happening which highlights police brutality and the asinine levels of the law violated.
I don’t expect a lot from a teenager either, but obviously she set out to break this rule and now has seen what happens. Looks like a failed case of protest with a dose of reality mixed in to me, next time she can try harder. You are right, I think teaching children/kids rules and why they exist is something every parent or teacher should be doing. They also should be teaching them things like rationality and to question why things are the way they are and to not blindly accept them. In this particular case I think the best she deserves is a gold star for trying and the contact information of someone who can help her succeed in ratifying these rules.
I’ll clarify my position just so you all don’t think I’m a complete trolley (even though I been here like a decade…) I don’t make excuses for male behavior, I understand the impulses males have and lay the blame squarely on the parents for not raising better children to handle them. So anytime I see a guy acting like a complete knuckle dragging hormone driven fool I think 1. I hate being associated with creatures like that just because we are the same sex. 2. Your dad (or mom) must have been complete shit.
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I must have been the only person who attended schools without a dress code.
Tube tops, halter tops, low riders, mini skirts/dresses, short shorts, Dolfin shorts, and Budweiser, Jack Daniels, marijuana leaf themed t-shirts were all okay during the 70s and early 80s in the conservative San Joaquin Valley town where I grew up.
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no : P
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Oh, good. I thought I was in a twilight zone episode. 
Personally, I think students who attend schools without a uniform-style dress code (most U.S. public schools) should be able to wear whatever the hell they want. Also, it seems to be more distracting for the adult visitors (parents and board members) than it is for the other students and staff, the latter of whom really don’t give a damn.
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