Teenager succeeds in changing dress code banning schoolgirls from wearing trousers

The 18-year-old girl called for her school to remove its 'patriarchal standards'

BME students, from all backgrounds, don’t yet have a foot on the ladder in academia (Getty)

A teenager in North Carolina has successfully changed her school’s dress code that banned girls from wearing trousers to their graduation ceremony.

Cumberland Polytechnic High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina stipulated that girls must wear black dresses with hemlines no longer than their graduation robes, black closed-toe high heels and black tights.

Ahead of her graduation in May, 18-year-old student Lacey Henry decided she wanted to wear trousers to her graduation ceremony and subsequently launched a petition against the school's "patriarchal" dress code.

“As a young woman in 2019, the students expect freedom of dress and choice for their body, but instead, their bodies are over-sexualised and objectified,” she wrote in the petition.

“It is time for Cumberland Polytechnic High School to step into this century and remove these patriarchal standards for their students.”

Henry, added that she felt the school’s rules were a violation of Title IX – a federal law that bans schools from sex- or gender-based discrimination.

“It’s kind of insane — no one can see what’s under our graduation robes anyway,” she told Yahoo.

“Heavier students are always in violation because their clothing can be tighter in some places and guys show their bare chests. The district once barred a girl from attending her own graduation ceremony — even as an audience member — because she wore pants [sic].”

The campaign quickly garnered more than 780 signatures and successfully prompted the school's principal to announce a change in dress code.

“Cumberland County Schools’ Regulation Code: 4316-R3 Graduation Student Dress Code provides guidance on regalia requirements for high school graduations,” principal Daniel Krumanocher Jr. wrote in a press release.

“Some additional graduation attire guidelines are developed at the school level to ensure all students are dressed in a manner appropriate to the solemnity of the occasion.

“However, school-level graduation guidelines will not require students to conform to a specific type of attire based on their gender, and they will be fully compliant with Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause."

While Henry’s petition proved successful, she later revealed that the updated dress code now requires anyone who wants to wear trousers to graduation to also sport a tie.

“It’s definitely a deterrent for girls,” she said.

“But I will wear pants and a tie."