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Maggie Sunseri was a middle-school student in Versailles, Kentucky, when she first noticed a major difference in the way her school’s dress code treated males and females. Girls were disciplined disproportionately, she says, a trend she’s seen continue over the years. At first Sunseri simply found this disparity unfair, but upon realizing administrators’ troubling rationale behind the dress code—that certain articles of girls’ attire should be prohibited because they “distract” boys—she decided to take action.

“I’ve never seen a boy called out for his attire even though they also break the rules,” says Sunseri, who last summer produced Shame: A Documentary on School Dress Code, a film featuring interviews with dozens of her classmates and her school principal, that explores the negative impact biased rules can have on girls’ confidence and sense of self. The documentary now has tens of thousands of YouTube views, while a post about the dress-code policy at her high school—Woodford County High—has been circulated more than 45,000 times on the Internet.

Although dress codes have long been a subject of contention, the growth of platforms like Facebook and Instagram, along with a resurgence of student activism, has prompted a major uptick in protests against attire rules, including popular campaigns similar to the one championed by Sunseri. Conflict over these policies has also spawned hundreds of Change.org petitions and numerous school walkouts. Many of these protests have criticized the dress codes as sexist in that they unfairly target girls by body-shaming and blaming them for promoting sexual harassment. Documented cases show female students being chastised by school officials, sent home, or barred from attending events like prom.

Meanwhile, gender non-conforming and transgender students have also clashed with such policies on the grounds that they rigidly dictate how kids express their identities. Transgender students have been sent home for wearing clothing different than what’s expected of their legal sex, while others have been excluded from yearbooks. Male students, using traditionally female accessories that fell within the bounds of standard dress code rules, and vice versa, have been nonetheless disciplined for their fashion choices. These cases are prompting their own backlash.

Dress codes—given the power they entrust school authorities to regulate student identity—can, according to students, ultimately establish discriminatory standards as the norm. The prevalence and convergence of today’s protests suggest that schools not only need to update their policies—they also have to recognize and address the latent biases that go into creating them.

* * *

At Woodford County High, the dress code bans skirts and shorts that fall higher than the knee and shirts that extend below the collarbone. Recently, a photo of a female student at the school who was sent home after wearing a seemingly appropriate outfit that nonetheless showed collarbone—went viral on Reddit and Twitter.

Posted by Stacie Dunn on Thursday, August 13, 2015

The restrictions and severity of dress codes vary widely across states, 22 of which have some form of law granting local districts the power to establish these rules, according to the Education Commission of the States. In the U.S., over half of public schools have a dress code, which frequently outline gender-specific policies. Some administrators see these distinctions as necessary because of the different ways in which girls and boys dress. In many cases, however, female-specific policies account for a disproportionate number of the attire rules included in school handbooks. Certain parts of ​Arkansas’s statewide dress code, for example, exclusively applies to females.* Passed in 2011, the law “requires districts to prohibit the wearing of clothing that exposes underwear, buttocks, or the breast of a female student.” (The provision prohibiting exposure of the "underwear and buttocks" applies to all students.)

Depending on administrators and school boards, some places are more relaxed, while others take a hard line. Policies also tend to fluctuate, according to the University of Maryland American-studies professor and fashion historian Jo Paoletti, who described dress-code adaptations as very “reactionary” to whatever happens to be popular at the time—whether it’s white go-go boots or yoga pants. Jere Hochman, the superintendent of New York’s Bedford Central School District echoes Paoletti in explaining that officials revisit his district’s policy, which has been in place “for years and years and years,” “on an informal basis.” “It’s likely an annual conversation, he notes, “based on the times and what’s changed and fads.”

While research on dress codes remains inconclusive regarding the correlation between their implementation with students’ academic outcomes, many educators agree that they can serve an important purpose: helping insure a safe and comfortable learning environment, banning T-shirts with offensive racial epithets, for example. When students break the rules by wearing something deemed inappropriate, administrators must, of course, enforce school policies.

The process of defining what’s considered “offensive” and “inappropriate,” however, can get quite murky. Schools may promote prejudiced policies, even if those biases are unintentional. For students who attend schools with particularly harsh rules like that at Woodford, one of the key concerns is the implication that women should be hypercognizant about their physical identity and how the world responds to it. “The dress code makes girls feel self-conscious, ashamed, and uncomfortable in their own bodies,” says Sunseri.

Yet Sunseri emphasizes that this isn’t where she and other students take the most issue. “It's not really the formal dress code by itself that is so discriminatory, it’s the message behind the dress code,” she says, “My principal constantly says that the main reason for [it] is to create a ‘distraction-free learning zone’ for our male counterparts.” Woodford County is one of many districts across the country to justify female-specific rules with that logic, and effectively, to place the onus on girls to prevent inappropriate reactions from their male classmates. (Woodford County High has not responded to multiple requests for comment.)

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High school dress codes have been a topic of controversy over the last few years, with many students fighting back against the often-sexist rules that enforce the codes. By regulating what's appropriate for young women and girls to wear, schools often imply it's up to women to dress in a way that won't distract their male counterparts (it's not). With graduation season in full swing, yet another case of a dress code targeting a female student has arisen, reports WCNC.The news outlet reports that Summer, a Hickory Ridge High School senior from North Carolina, was ultimately suspended from school and graduation due to a dress code violation. As seen in a photo shared by WCNC, Summer, who has a 4.4 GPA and a full scholarship to college where she plans to pursue a pre-med track, was wearing a loose, long-sleeved, off-the-shoulder green shirt. The principal — with whom Summer has butted heads before — reportedly approached Summer in the cafeteria and told her to put on a jacket, saying that her back was too exposed in the shirt. According to a report the news outlet obtained, Summer complied, covering herself with a friend's jacket.

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High school dress codes have been a topic of controversy over the last few years, with many students fighting back against the often-sexist rules that enforce the codes. By regulating what's appropriate for young women and girls to wear, schools often imply it's up to women to dress in a way that won't distract their male counterparts (it's not). With graduation season in full swing, yet another case of a dress code targeting a female student has arisen, reports WCNC.The news outlet reports that Summer, a Hickory Ridge High School senior from North Carolina, was ultimately suspended from school and graduation due to a dress code violation. As seen in a photo shared by WCNC, Summer, who has a 4.4 GPA and a full scholarship to college where she plans to pursue a pre-med track, was wearing a loose, long-sleeved, off-the-shoulder green shirt. The principal — with whom Summer has butted heads before — reportedly approached Summer in the cafeteria and told her to put on a jacket, saying that her back was too exposed in the shirt. According to a report the news outlet obtained, Summer complied, covering herself with a friend's jacket.

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However, since Summer reportedly told the principal, "My shirt is fine," he sent her to a room, called "the control room," to further press the issue. A school resource officer (a law enforcement officer who works in a school) was present, and Summer told WCNC that he had his hand on his gun. "I stayed in my seat just like a lot of role models that I have looked up to stayed in their seats," she told WCNC. "I mean, you have to stand up for what you believe in." The school resource officer was reportedly about to arrest Summer, when her mother, whom the principal had been trying to reach, finally called.

Ultimately, Summer was not arrested. Instead, she was given a 10-day suspension, banned from senior activities, including graduation, and the principal is "still considering expelling her," she says. The principal, however, cites the reason for her suspension as "insubordination." Summer's mom is planning to appeal the school's disciplinary decision.

"It's just sad because I worked so hard for four years to walk across that stage," she told WCNC. "We have drug dealers walking across that stage, we have sex offenders walking across that stage, and then the 4.4 student who showed her shoulders can't."

This is not the first time Hickory Ridge High School has made a controversial decision about a dress code. As reported by the Independent Tribune, 45 students at the school got in trouble this past fall for wearing leggings with shirts that did not reach their fingertips.

More on dress codes:

1. Malaysian Girl's Story Goes Viral After She's Forced To Withdraw From A Chess Tournament For "Violating" The Dress Code

2. DressLikeAWoman Is the Internet's Response to Trump's Alleged Dress Code for Female Staffers

3. This Hero Sixth-Grader Protested Her School’s Sexist Dress Code — by Breaking It

Hirsh, Sophie. “This Student Is BANNED From Her Graduation After Wearing This Shirt.” Allure, Allure Magazine, 2017, www.allure.com/story/student-banned-from-graduation-over-shirt.

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it comes to clothing for girls, I heard several examples of how schools are shaming girls when they wear those same clothes to school.But if the girls are wearing the clothes that are primarily being offered to them, don't we have a problem here?Many think we do, including Catherine Pearlman, a mother of two who penned a tongue-in-cheek letter to her daughter's middle school principal in a blog post for Today.com that was viewed more than 2 million times.Pearlman said her daughter, now 13, had been told in the fall by a teacher that she couldn't wear yoga pants because the boys would get turned on and then be embarrassed.Catherine Pearlman's daughter in the shorts that she says violated her school's dress code.Catherine Pearlman's daughter in the shorts that she says violated her school's dress code.Then, for two days in a row, her daughter, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall, was told she violated the school's dress code for wearing shorts that were too short: They are supposed to be longer than students' fingertips when they have their arms at their sides. She had to put on boys' gym shorts instead and return to class.Pearlman -- a licensed clinical social worker and founder of The Family Coach, a private practice helping families resolve everyday problems including discipline, sibling rivalry and sleep -- headed to her computer to vent."To reward you for treating my daughter with such concern, I am cordially inviting you to take my daughter shopping," she wrote. "Now, don't forget that you will have to find something in the stores that also meets with your dress code requirements.Catherine Pearlman, co-founder of The Family Coach, is author of "Ignore It!"Catherine Pearlman, co-founder of The Family Coach, is author of "Ignore It!""She has very long fingers which seems to make finding shorts that won't get her sent to the principal's office impossible. ... I can tell you from experience that just heading to the mall, Target and the outlets won't cut it. Not much for her there. I've already checked."'Subtle messages' being sent to girlsPearlman never sent the letter to the principal. She took to the computer because she believes schools don't want to be in the business of body-shaming girls but don't realize that that's what they are doing by enforcing what she thinks is an outdated dress code."As a woman, I know almost no women who like their body, who feel good about their body, almost none, but you don't know how you got there," Pearlman said in an interview. "But when you have a daughter, you see, I can literally see it happening, and it's so subtle, but it's all of these things. It's the yoga pants. It's the short shorts."Student protests growing over gender-equal dress codesStudent protests growing over gender-equal dress codesIn response to her post, she heard a range of comments, both supportive and critical. Among the critics were people who said that if her daughter continues to wear the shorts she was wearing, "she's going to grow up to be a slut and a prostitute," said Pearlman, author of "Ignore It! How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and Increase Parenting Satisfaction."Though her daughter didn't hear those kinds of comments at school, Pearlman still feels that the reprimands she received for what she wore could make her feel self-conscious about her body."I think there are these subtle messages that sort of carry on that we shouldn't show something. Why shouldn't we show something? Because something's wrong with our body," she said. "We need to be teaching the boys what appropriate behavior is instead of teaching the girls that they have to cover up to protect themselves from the boys."Pearlman's daughter is not alone.There have been countless examples, many shared on social media, of girls being shamed for the clothing they wear. One woman wrote about how her 9-year-old granddaughter wore a tank top on a 99-degree day and was told she was violating the school dress code."What happened was totally humiliating to her," wrote Laurie Levy, a retired preschool director, in a blog post for Chicago Now. The teacher sent the girl to the school nurse, where she was told to change out of her top and wear a boy's short-sleeved undershirt instead, according to Levy, author of "Terribly Strange and Wonderfully Real: On Belonging, Loving, Evolving, Advocating, Musing, and Letting Go.""I'm not sure what the purpose of a dress code is for such young kids other than to make them feel ashamed of how they look or the clothing their families have purchased for them," she said. "In middle school, however, dress codes for girls become downright discriminatory. By that age, tight yoga pants, cropped shorts, very short shorts and close fitting tank tops are, well, revealing for some girls. For the late bloomers, not so much."Fitted tees, shorty shorts: Sending the wrong message to girls? Fitted tees, shorty shorts: Sending the wrong message to girls?One 15-year-old girl, who we're not naming to protect her privacy, said she was given an in-school suspension for wearing shorts that were to her mid-thigh. Her teacher suggested that her clothing was suggestive and that she was "asking for it."She says boys wear shorts that are shorter than hers and don't get in trouble."I feel bad because it's my body ... and there's no reason for the school to be telling me that I have to cover it up," she said.The message her school is sending her, she said, is that she should cover up and be ashamed. "If I show a little bit of my body, I'm considered a bad girl," she said. "Just because I'm wearing this doesn't mean that I want people to look at me sexually. I want to be seen as a woman. I don't want to have to feel bad about my body."

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it comes to clothing for girls, I heard several examples of how schools are shaming girls when they wear those same clothes to school.But if the girls are wearing the clothes that are primarily being offered to them, don't we have a problem here?Many think we do, including Catherine Pearlman, a mother of two who penned a tongue-in-cheek letter to her daughter's middle school principal in a blog post for Today.com that was viewed more than 2 million times.Pearlman said her daughter, now 13, had been told in the fall by a teacher that she couldn't wear yoga pants because the boys would get turned on and then be embarrassed.Catherine Pearlman's daughter in the shorts that she says violated her school's dress code.Catherine Pearlman's daughter in the shorts that she says violated her school's dress code.Then, for two days in a row, her daughter, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall, was told she violated the school's dress code for wearing shorts that were too short: They are supposed to be longer than students' fingertips when they have their arms at their sides. She had to put on boys' gym shorts instead and return to class.Pearlman -- a licensed clinical social worker and founder of The Family Coach, a private practice helping families resolve everyday problems including discipline, sibling rivalry and sleep -- headed to her computer to vent."To reward you for treating my daughter with such concern, I am cordially inviting you to take my daughter shopping," she wrote. "Now, don't forget that you will have to find something in the stores that also meets with your dress code requirements.Catherine Pearlman, co-founder of The Family Coach, is author of "Ignore It!"Catherine Pearlman, co-founder of The Family Coach, is author of "Ignore It!""She has very long fingers which seems to make finding shorts that won't get her sent to the principal's office impossible. ... I can tell you from experience that just heading to the mall, Target and the outlets won't cut it. Not much for her there. I've already checked."'Subtle messages' being sent to girlsPearlman never sent the letter to the principal. She took to the computer because she believes schools don't want to be in the business of body-shaming girls but don't realize that that's what they are doing by enforcing what she thinks is an outdated dress code."As a woman, I know almost no women who like their body, who feel good about their body, almost none, but you don't know how you got there," Pearlman said in an interview. "But when you have a daughter, you see, I can literally see it happening, and it's so subtle, but it's all of these things. It's the yoga pants. It's the short shorts."Student protests growing over gender-equal dress codesStudent protests growing over gender-equal dress codesIn response to her post, she heard a range of comments, both supportive and critical. Among the critics were people who said that if her daughter continues to wear the shorts she was wearing, "she's going to grow up to be a slut and a prostitute," said Pearlman, author of "Ignore It! How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and Increase Parenting Satisfaction."Though her daughter didn't hear those kinds of comments at school, Pearlman still feels that the reprimands she received for what she wore could make her feel self-conscious about her body."I think there are these subtle messages that sort of carry on that we shouldn't show something. Why shouldn't we show something? Because something's wrong with our body," she said. "We need to be teaching the boys what appropriate behavior is instead of teaching the girls that they have to cover up to protect themselves from the boys."Pearlman's daughter is not alone.There have been countless examples, many shared on social media, of girls being shamed for the clothing they wear. One woman wrote about how her 9-year-old granddaughter wore a tank top on a 99-degree day and was told she was violating the school dress code."What happened was totally humiliating to her," wrote Laurie Levy, a retired preschool director, in a blog post for Chicago Now. The teacher sent the girl to the school nurse, where she was told to change out of her top and wear a boy's short-sleeved undershirt instead, according to Levy, author of "Terribly Strange and Wonderfully Real: On Belonging, Loving, Evolving, Advocating, Musing, and Letting Go.""I'm not sure what the purpose of a dress code is for such young kids other than to make them feel ashamed of how they look or the clothing their families have purchased for them," she said. "In middle school, however, dress codes for girls become downright discriminatory. By that age, tight yoga pants, cropped shorts, very short shorts and close fitting tank tops are, well, revealing for some girls. For the late bloomers, not so much."Fitted tees, shorty shorts: Sending the wrong message to girls? Fitted tees, shorty shorts: Sending the wrong message to girls?One 15-year-old girl, who we're not naming to protect her privacy, said she was given an in-school suspension for wearing shorts that were to her mid-thigh. Her teacher suggested that her clothing was suggestive and that she was "asking for it."She says boys wear shorts that are shorter than hers and don't get in trouble."I feel bad because it's my body ... and there's no reason for the school to be telling me that I have to cover it up," she said.The message her school is sending her, she said, is that she should cover up and be ashamed. "If I show a little bit of my body, I'm considered a bad girl," she said. "Just because I'm wearing this doesn't mean that I want people to look at me sexually. I want to be seen as a woman. I don't want to have to feel bad about my body."

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Wallace, Kelly. “Do School Dress Codes Body-Shame Girls?” CNN, Cable News Network, 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/05/30/health/school-dress-codes-body-shaming-girls-parenting/index.html.

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Student Dress Code

Students in the Springfield Public School District are expected to abide by the following dress code. Students who violate the dress code will be subject to disciplinary consequences outlined in the Informational and Discipline Handbook which is distributed to students at the beginning of every school year.

Dress and grooming shall neither present a risk to the health, safety or general welfare of students or others in the school nor interfere with or disrupt the educational environment or process.

Dress and grooming shall not be contrary to curriculum goals and/or educational objectives or advertise, promote or picture alcoholic beverages, tobacco, illegal drugs or illegal or violent behavior.

Dress and grooming, including accessories, shall not display lewd, vulgar, obscene or plainly-offensive language or symbols, including gang symbols.

Hats, caps, bandannas, sweat bands and sunglasses shall not be worn in the buildings.

Pierced jewelry, other than earrings worn in the ear, shall not be worn in the buildings; neither shall spiked apparel and accessories or chains that can be used as weapons.

Shoe laces should be tied.

Coats and jackets should not be worn in the building without principal permission.

Clothing with holes, ragged hems or cut-off hemlines, or made of transparent or fishnet fabric, or clothing that exposes the chest, abdomen, genital area or buttocks, undergarments or the legs above mid-thigh, shall not be worn in the buildings.

Properly-fitting clothing is to be worn. Oversized, extremely baggy clothing or improperly-fitted clothing is not allowed. Pants, shorts or skirts must be worn at the waist; sagging is prohibited.

Tattoos that, by their content, violate any of the provisions of the Student Dress Code must be covered at all times while students are on school property and/or in attendance at school sponsored activities.

Springfield Public Schools - Student Dress Code, www.sps186.org/about/policy/?p=22093.