I would also note that 10 years ago this might have gone unnoticed and not to long before that it probably would have been thought of as a good thing. If you are an authority figure in today’s day and age, you best keep your eyes open.
I think that I know what upset her daughter about the urban dictionary’s entry for “dick” – must have been the picture:
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So is the problem here that she actually did something to confront the girls dressing inappropriately or the fact she handled the matter poorly? Because quite frankly if you asked a teenage girl to bend over and she feels embarrassed then there IS something wrong with what she’s wearing (at least in the context of being in school.)
And don’t give me that slut shaming crap… If we were dealing with college aged women or older fine. At that point I’d hope everyone has learned a general idea of how your peers will treat you based upon your dress - and I don’t care to hear about how it’s “her” problem, because it is at least her choice to begin with. This isn’t about adults, it’s about what society still classifies as children. So if you let your daughter go to school wearing a mini skirt and low cut top at least part of that blame should fall on the parents.
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The girl that talked to the reporters was in a sun dress that was mid thigh. Far from offensive, but not exactly morning calisthenics appropriate.
Also, simply asking a girl to bend over in front of here peers to see if she is too skanky is in and of itself humiliating regardless of what she is wearing.
Also, just because society as a whole thinks a certain way doesn’t give public employees permission to drill that into our children.
Also, there is some chance, and I don’t want to overstate this, but you could be sort of an asshole on this issue. You might want to look into that.
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If you feel the need to police what teenage girls are wearing this closely, it is not the teenage girls who have the problem.
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And if at any point I am wearing a dress that ends above my knees, I do not “bend over” to pick something up. Once your dress hits that point, one bends at the knee.
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Well since girls are showing up to school (possibly) dressed inappropriately then that kind of shows that the the parents don’t give a shit either. And here we have a public employee who’s job it is to try and do something productive with these kids 6 to 8 hours a day and she sees an opportunity to teach them something about dress and their peers. Yes, she might have went about it the wrong way, but I don’t think she was doing it as a power trip or for malicious reasons.
Lets say she told the entire class, boy and girls, tomorrow bring a swimsuit and a towel. The next day they are instructed to all change into what they brought with the towel covering them (obviously in the appropriate changing locations). Then everyone goes back to the gym and the superintendent asks everyone to take off their towel. I’m guessing you’d have a lot of upset and embarrassed teens. Now repeat all that, but instead the super tells everyone that tomorrow is a vacation day and everyone is going to the water park. All the kids end up in their same outfits and they are all having fun. Why? Because of context.
That’s alright, you can call me Walt. And would you mind stepping off my lawn please?
Lining people up and telling them to bend over to make sure their clothing doesn’t strike you as provocative is a textbook illustration of a “power trip.” Having private conversations with girls she feels are dressed provocatively is the only reasonable, respectful way to address that concern.
That’s the funny thing about being in charge of what is essentially an authoritarian environment. Power affects people’s brains. Frequently, as in this case, it makes them do very stupid things.
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She definitely did go about it the wrong way; using shame and humiliation as teaching tools belongs to another century.
You seem to believe that Hanlon’s Razor should be applied in judgement of the superintendent’s actions.
I think its corollary, Grey’s Law, is more applicable in this case.
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Again. We are talking about a sun dress. Your fantasy that these girls were dressed like 1980’s hookers is really at the core of your problems.
It seems clear that no real lesson anyone needed to learn. This big haired idiot was just enforcing some level of female modesty that is, “The least modest girls are clearly sluts, so nobody better be the least modestly dressed here.”
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Policing what teenage girls are wearing is nothing new. I still remember the day when I wasn’t yet in 7th or 8th grade and our school principal chose a random time during the day to announce his decision to “outlaw” Dove and Dolfin-style shorts for the 7th and 8th grade girls. (They were apparently too distracting for the 7th and 8th grade boys - and possibly their teachers as well.)
That was at a public school with no aggressive dress code. So, even at a place where dress codes aren’t a big deal, people do set boundaries - usually arbitrary ones. Back then, the older girls were upset, and I was confused. After all, no one had told the boys there was something they couldn’t wear, too. It seemed unfair.
That’s what isn’t OK. Imbalance and embarrassment. The way the superintendent is handling this situation is designed to engender both. That’s really not good for the girls in her care.
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You obviously didn’t have swimming as part of your middle/jr. high schooling. That unit was almost as fun as the ‘social dance’ unit. At least we weren’t forced to touch one another during the swimming unit.
Also, the superintendent reportedly used the word ‘skank’. She had every intention of humiliating someone.
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I’m no longer a teenage girl, but I would be embarrassed to bend over for someone’s inspection even if I was wearing jeans or an ankle length dress.
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It’s possible, good people of the bbs, that it is possible that Ronda Bass is simply a woman who’s lifetime of personal losses, and inability to get as far ahead as she may have wanted has simply turned her into a vindictive bitch, especially toward the sort of persons she sees as her main rivals in romance, job security, social opportunities. I’m not saying that this is clearly evident, but the trail of crumbs is visible from here. So, not so certain Grey’s Law applies.
On the bright side, it’s not so great an issue that a few years of Cognitive therapy can’t help.
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