Is this dress really inappropriate?
A teenage girl says she has been left feeling shamed and embarrassed after being told to wear a coat at a high school dance to cover her shoulders.
Gabi Finlayson, a student at Lone Peak High School in Utah, said a school representative confronted her as she entered the dance and told her she needed to cover up, KUTV reported.
She said she didn’t want to make a scene and obliged.
“I had a coat in the car so I had to go back and get it,” she said.
“Somehow my shoulders are sexualised.
“Like it's my responsibility to make sure the boys’ thoughts are not unclean.”
She most people would consider the dress appropriate, had the incident had left her feeling shamed.
“Maybe instead of teaching girls they should cover themselves up, we should be teaching boys that we’re not just sex objects that you can look at and derive pleasure,” she told KUTV.
Four out of the 1200 students attending the event were told to cover up.
The school’s principal Rhonda Bromley said students were well aware of the dress code for formal events, which read: “dresses and/or tops may not extend beyond the bottom of the shoulder blades. Girls’ dresses and tops must have a 2″ minimum strap on each shoulder”.
She also said the regulations were approved by students and teachers, and students were not embarrassed when they were told their dresses were inappropriate.
Morning news break – January 29
