HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK PHOTOS ALTERED CODE
HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK PHOTOS ALTERED TV

Shorts, skirts, or dresses have to reach mid-thigh, and exposed midriffs are banned for all students. For example, the new version says all students can wear tank tops as opposed to only boys.

HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK PHOTOS ALTERED CODE

The new dress code policy removes some gendered language that Riley and Morris said was in the previous iteration. However, the district did change its dress code policy. Riley said the district promised to form a committee to develop the new dress code, but she was never asked to join one. The district introduced a new gender-neutral dress code That sends a message to female students that their bodies are inherently sexual or inappropriate, Morris said. “Dress codes like this one also invite biased enforcement against other marginalized groups,” the letter said. Johns County schools a letter to the district in July 2021, a few months after the yearbook photos were altered, taking aim at the gendered dress code and accusing the district of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as well as parts of the Florida Constitution, and the Florida Educational Equity Act. Children, who are taking their school photos,” said Linda Morris, a lawyer for the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. “The school had basically censored these students’ chests, and had over-sexualized them. After that, the school stopped enforcing the dress code, she said. This time, her speech gained national media attention.

National attention after the yearbook incident prompted district actionĪfter she saw the altered photos in the yearbook, Riley spoke again at a school board meeting about the dress code. Hundreds of students and parents expressed their concern about the dress code and signed Riley’s petition in April 2021, according to First Coast News.Īt that point, the district’s senior director for school services, Paul Abbatinozzi, told parents that they should speak at the meeting in April to share their concerns with the board. Johns County school board at a public meeting, yielded no change. The district’s communications office did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.ĭespite collecting more than 7,000 signatures, the petition, as well as speaking to the St. “The dress code is clearly based on the sexualization of young women and their clothing,” she wrote, “Especially since many girls are told they are dressed inappropriately or that what they are wearing may be ‘distracting’ to the boys.” The ordeal frustrated Riley, even though she was not among those dress coded, so she wrote a petition on, explaining that administrators checked the thickness of the straps on girls’ top, the length of their shirts and skirts, and threatened to suspend students if they didn’t unzip their jackets, according to Riley’s petition. Although there have been some inconsistencies with information on social networking, the principal and his administrative team have been meeting with students and families to follow up from Friday.”

HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK PHOTOS ALTERED TV

In March 2021, Riley walked through the doors of the school building to find a dress code “sweep.”Īdministrators were standing by the doors, asking girls to raise their hands to determine if they were wearing crop tops, or making them unzip their jackets to check what they were wearing underneath, according to news reports and Riley’s petition.Īfter News4Jax reported on the dress code sweep, the district sent the TV station a statement: “The administration at BTHS as with all our sites administers the expectations on student dress for all in a manner that is respectful and is not intended to be unfair to any group of students. Johns County school district’s dress code policies. The yearbook censoring was not the first time Riley had raised issues with the St. Students started demanding change after a dress code sweep Department of Education to address dress code disparities.ĭress codes are also gendered, the report found, which means they enforce the gender binary, making it difficult for nonbinary, gender nonconforming, or transgender students to adhere to them.Īdditionally, 90 percent of dress codes prohibit clothing typically associated with girls, focusing on the modesty or appropriateness of their clothing, whereas 69 percent prohibit items typically associated with boys, according to the report. Students of color, girls, and LGBTQ+ students are often disciplined disproportionately for dress code violations, according to a government accountability report, which called on the U.S. “And that was really frustrating because they’re insinuating that we’re going in there and like pulling down our shirts for photos.”

High school yearbook photos altered