Students At This School Are Being Forced To Submit Their Homecoming Dresses For Approval Before They Can Wear Them.

Has this school crossed a line?

In the age of the viral internet, it seems like every week we hear another outrageous story about dress codes in high schools — most of which, unfortunately, target young women, and end up compromising their education in some way by either pulling them out of class or making them feel uncomfortable in their own bodies. One school's effort to get ahead of dress code violations, though, only seems to make the problem worse.

Dress-wearing students (ahem, mostly girls) are required to submit a photo of their outfit prior to the dance.

If the female students at Pewaukee High School want to purchase tickets to homecoming, they must send in a photo of their dress for pre-approval by administrators. I'm sorry, is this a mortgage application or an innocent school gathering?

"It's really out of a sensitivity to our students. We want [school dances] to be a positive experience."

"We don't want anyone to show up and have to be sent home because of a dress-code violation," explained Pewaukee Superintendent Mike Cady when speaking about the emails sent out to students and parents regarding the rule. Right, because requiring your outfit to be pre-approved by some dude named Mike really makes for a positive experience.

Many parents who received the email have been quick to disagree.

"The girls are essentially being held responsible for the wayward thoughts [administrators] think boys have," said Rebecca Sheperd, the mother of a freshman girl at Pewaukee High School, to the Journal Sentinel. "They're being told, 'You are the problem.' These are the roots of rape culture, frankly."

It's an all-too-familiar tune to people who have been keeping up with stories dress code violations.

Not only are incidents like these disruptive to girls' education, but as Sheperd points it, it frequently seems to hold them responsible for the boys' behavior toward them, enforcing a dynamic that may seem harmless in regards to high school dress code but is entirely dangerous when it becomes a foundation for victim-blaming in much more serious situations. Rather than shifting the conversation toward men respecting women, women are constantly shamed and held responsible for how they present their bodies — and sexist enforcement of dress code shines a blaring light on it.

But Superintendent Cady doesn't think the rules are sexist, since boys have dress codes too, like no saggy pants.

Are boys not allowed to wear loose-fitting pants because, we as a society, over-sexualize their butts and turn their body parts into detached, mundane objects for our pleasure? Yes? Oh, OK. Then we're even.

Girls shouldn't be made to feel bad about their bodies because of a dress code.

Until school administrators understand the negative message they send about female bodies (to both men and women) with these dress codes, the culture of female sexualization will only be perpetuated. After all, classrooms should be a place where boys and girls learn how to respect — not ostracize —one another.

It doesn't just hurt women in the long run, but also directly impacts their education.

Students violating the dress code have been suspended, not only denied their education that day but forced to carry that suspension on their permanent records; one school adopted a "shame suit" they made dress code infringers wear, making the violation a personal target and impacting students' self-esteem; one student even claimed that when she covered up a scoop-neck shirt with a sweater and didn't change it completely the way a principal asked, he escalated it to the point of threatening to have her arrested.

There is no doubt, dress codes impact more women than men, but at least we get closer to addressing the problem when one of these stories goes viral.

The parents of Pewaukee High School are speaking out. Earlier this year, a mom refused to comply with a school's request to bring a change of clothes for her daughter, then called out the school in a public Instagram post. One school recently caught the attention of advocates for its progressive dress code, which firmly banned any oppression or marginalization of any kind, a policy that demonstrates that dress codes don't necessarily have to be a bad thing, so long as they are held in a nondiscriminatory, productive manner.

What do you think of the controversy?

Pewaukee High School's policy of having "dress wearing" students is arguably discriminatory, though, considering that "non-dress wearing students" have not been asked to do anything similar. Whether the "non-dress wearing students" are asked to send in pictures, though, does not solve the larger problem: that this practice is bizarrely controlling, shaming, and discourages students from fully enjoying an otherwise fun, celebratory event.

SHARE and COMMENT with what you think about Pewaukee High School's homecoming dress code rule!