A group of students from St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Owen Sound protested what they call an ‘unfair and biased’ dress code Thursday afternoon.
The rally, held at Victoria Park was called, “Justice for the Girls at St Mary’s.”
Protester and senior student Alexis Brunet says,”It’s unfairly targeted towards females.”
Students created a change.org petition that, as of 6 p.m. May 19th, had 549 signatures on it. The school does not have a required uniform.
It calls for “new and properly enforced rules for all,” along with a meeting with the Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board and the parent committee.
The petition also calls for consistent and clear education for teachers about the dress code with regard to what is included in it, the level of sensitivity with which it is enforced and what protest organizers call ‘policing minors’ bodies.’
They also want more allowances to be made to accommodate diverse body types.
They want the removal of male teachers from the policing of female dress code (with the exception of the principal or vice principal), and to have female teachers enforce dress code for female students, and male teachers enforce dress code for male students.
One protester, Mollie Mclaurin says, “We go to a Catholic School and I think it’s important that dress code is there and established, but the idea is that it’s super insensitive.”
Meanwhile, Brunet says, “It falls back on the female students who get in trouble when they come to school and they think they’re in dress code and they get publicly shamed and embarrassed. It’s not okay and there needs to be a change.”
Brunet argues boys are not criticized for showing their shoulders the way girls are. “You can see lots of boys wearing muscle shirts and things like that— that females wouldn’t be allowed to wear.”
Brunet says she is aware of a recent dress code protest at an Ottawa school, noting, “I did look at that long and hard, and I did get lots of ideas from that and I’m very proud of those people.”
Bayshore Broadcasting News did not receive a response to a request for comment from the Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board before publication time.
