High school’s girls-only dress code video prompts sexism outcry
A video that singled out girls for dress code violations at Flower Mound’s Marcus High School continued to fuel social media discussion days after the principal apologized to students.
“I’m a firm believer that when you make a mistake, you own it, you apologize, and you make it right,” principal Will Skelton wrote in a notice to parents on Aug. 17.
The video depicts girls in shorts and T-shirts walking inside a school while the song “Bad Girls” by MIA is playing in the background. The girls get in trouble for wearing athletic shorts and end up in a detention setting. Boys are not featured in the video.
Skelton said in his letter to parents that the song included in the video was “a poor song choice.”
The principal said there was construction near the campus that prevented the school from holding a student orientation that typically features a fashion show on what to wear and what not to wear. The video was shown Thursday during marauder time to the whole student body. Marauder time, which is similar to homeroom, alludes to the Marcus mascot.
Marcus High School is part of the Lewisville school district.
“We believed a video would be a good way to replace the fashion show, but this video absolutely missed the mark,” Skelton said.
The video, which was shown during second period, exploded on Twitter with criticism from students that it was sexist and demeaning.
Catherine Moring, a 17-year-old senior at Marcus, posted the video on Twitter with this message: “Today my school was shown this video. So sad how ONLY girls are shown as the violators. I understand why my school has a dresscode, but what about the boys who wear shorts, or show their shoulders? It’s 2018...Why are we still over-sexualizing teen girls?”
On Thursday, Moring praised the principal for his apology.
Marcus wasn’t the only Texas school that drew complaints of sexism as the school year started. In Houston, a sign at the Gregory Lincoln Education Center stated “The more you act like a lady, the more he’ll act like a gentleman.”
That quote was removed and replaced with an inspirational message, according to media reports.
This story was originally published August 20, 2018 at 2:46 PM.