While some of us might be able to remember students protesting their school’s dress code in years past, it’s probably fair to say that it’s happening more frequently and in much greater numbers nowadays.
The reasons why depend on the school in question, but common criticisms of school dress codes concern their tendency to police the way girls dress more stringently than their male counterparts. Another common issue concerns the subjective and nebulous excuse that whatever outfit a school happens to dislike is a ” distraction .”
Even when a dress code is clearly defined and explained, there’s still some room for interpretation as to which outfits are considered appropriate or inappropriate depending on who is seeing them.
And that seems to be at the heart of one parent’s confrontation with a school principal after her daughter was disallowed from returning to class due to her outfit.
Before we address what happens in TikTok user Khalesei Holt’s video, we must first establish how her daughter’s outfit supposedly violates the dress code.
According to the student handbook at Morris Ford Middle School in Tacoma, Washington, most of the rules in the dress code have to do with the way an outfit is either accessorized or related to gang culture.
Since none of that is relevant in the case of this 12-year-old student’s outfit and she is neither wearing shorts nor sagging pants, the only way her clothes explicitly go against the dress code is that they don’t entirely cover her midriff.
That rule seems more targeted towards crop tops, but school officials apparently considered it sufficiently offside to send her home for the day.
Holt sought to fight this decision once she was contacted about it, but quickly learned that none of the staff took kindly to her recording her confrontations with them.
Although we can hear that one employee was planning to summon security personnel after Holt continued recording, she was nonetheless able to speak to the school’s principal.
As you’ll quickly see from this discussion, the principal didn’t appreciate being filmed either and mentioned that her lawyer would agree that Holt needs her consent to record her.
Holt also discovered that there was no way that her daughter would be able to attend her classes that day due to her outfit.
As she said, “So you’re taking her education away over her dress code?”
Shortly thereafter, it seems that Holt recorded yet another video in the school’s parking lot while another school official and a police officer were present.
This person appears more sympathetic to Holt’s concerns and soon tells the officer that his presence won’t be required.
But while he promises that both he and the school will follow up with her over why exactly her daughter was sent home, that decision still stands.
As Bored Panda catalogued , Holt’s videos soon sparked a debate over whether she thought the rules didn’t apply to her daughter or whether the school enforced the dress code too harshly.
In response to the first group, Holt claimed that she brought another shirt for her daughter to wear, but that still didn’t affect their decision.
