Lea Churchill
February 2, 2016
According to senior Lea Churchill, she was walking down the hall when she was dress-coded by a teacher whom she did not know personally. Churchill said that the teacher asked her to “cover up.” Churchill answered questions below on dress expectations at the high school.
Senior Lea Churchill wears the outfit she was dress-coded in, consisting of a crop top, high-waisted jean shorts and tights. According to Churchill, she was dress-coded by a teacher whom she did not know personally, while walking down the hall. The teacher asked Churchill to “cover up.”
Q: How do you feel about teachers who dress-code their students?
A: I think that as a young woman, I look up to my female teachers for guidance. I feel like I would expect this type of harassment from a male person, just from my experience in my life of being targeting for what I’m wearing or for the way that I look. But, I feel like it is more painful or scarier when it comes from another woman because as another woman I feel like she should be looking out for young girls and their self esteem, and the way that she acts and the way that she addresses it, and the way she dress-codes someone and the effect that this has on the female student.
Q: Do you think that the high school environment necessitates a professional dress code?
A: I feel really professional in what I’m wearing and I feel like I could do good school work, and be productive and I just feel really comfortable in it. Professionalism is used only against women. Guys don’t get dress-coded for wearing stained clothes and sweatpants. It is an excuse to hold girls to an arbitrarily higher standard, and if BHS was really about professionalism then boys would not be allowed to wear shorts because in professional offices men always have to wear long pants.
Q: How do you feel in what you are wearing?
A: I feel really professional in what I’m wearing and I feel like I could do good school work and be productive in it and that’s the most important thing.