Starting at a new school is tough. Being singled out in front of your new classmates for a reason you don’t understand makes it even tougher.
This is the situation Bella Jones found herself in, after her middle school in Lansey, Kansas decided the 11-year-old’s leggings violated the school dress code.
The Year Six student was dismissed from her classroom and sent to the office, where she was forced to put on a pair of borrowed tracksuit bottoms and told she was not allowed to call her mother to bring her a change of clothes.
Image: Kimberly Jones/Fox4KC
After receiving a secret text from her daughter, Kimberly Jones took to Facebook in a since deleted post to complain about the incident.
"She texted me all upset sobbing that they told her not to call me and that she had to wear borrowed sweatpants all day. Their policy is that they are not allowed to change. She was begging to move because they embarrassed and harassed her," she wrote.
She stated that the outfit offered full coverage and Bella was even wearing a singlet underneath her jumper.
Image: Screenshot/Fox4KC
"Apparently 13 year old boys can't control themselves around this. In what world is it acceptable to call out and embarrass a child over THIS outfit?" she continued.
"As I sat there waiting for the principal I saw a teacher walk by with pants so tight I could see her underwear...but this is unacceptable? Are we living in the 1900s? And am I being punked because I just cannot believe this crap is real."
While the school refused to speak to news outlets, the district spokesperson said it was Bella's shirt that was the issue.
"The nurse informed me that she measured all the way around the dress or the shirt and it wasn't the sides, in was in front and in the back where it was too short," Community Relations Coordinator Ninevah Carvan told Fox 4 Kansas City News. (Post continues after gallery.)
Celebrities in high waisted pants.
However according to Jones, Bella was told it was her leggings that was the problem. This aligns with school dress code policy, which states that if it is a "shirt" violation, a replacement T-shirt will be given to the student. In this case, Bella was given tracksuit bottoms, the recommended action for when there is an issue with "shorts or pants".
The dress code policy was updated the day after Jones' alleged violation, to include 'leggings' under the section of inappropriate "clothing that is revealing or suggestive."
Jones said that they were a military family who had recently moved to the area and had never experienced anything like it.
"My number one issue with this whole situation is one that my minor, my eleven-year-old, was told that she could not contact her mother when there was an issue," she told Fox 4 Kansas City News.
Listen: The latest episode of our honest parenting podcast This Glorious Mess. Post continues after audio.
"If I could come up as a parent and bring her a change of clothes and the clothing was no longer an issue, why in the world would you want to humiliate her all day like that?"
The spokesperson said the current strategy was in place to avoid having students out of class for too long waiting for their parents to bring a change of clothes.
"It [giving borrowed clothing] is not intended to be a punishment in any way, fashion, or form. They just want to make sure when students do have a dress code violation, that they can quickly return back to class," Carvan said.
However the school said that going forward they would ensure parents were contacted sooner if there was an issue with their child at school.
Image: Kimberly Jones/Fox4KC.
Top Comments
If boys can't control themselves, maybe they should be excluded? How ridiculous. If that is the reason, I think boys at that age can't control themselves over a breath of wind!
I find it insulting, as the mother of a son, that some people think that boys won't be able to control themselves around a girl in leggings. Or a singlet top. Or shorts. Geez, not all men are odious predators who can't control themselves ;) Many of them of them have been taught and do know that women are more than just a body and are actual people with thoughts and feelings.
It was the mothers opinion that was why, the school doesn't appear to have said anything about boys.
Schools & workplaces can set dress standards without it being about the other sex.
I agree with you. I find the whole idea of females being expected to dress or act a certain way because males can't control themselves a ridiculous and dangerous notion (a certain religion springs to mind). And in defence of boys, I realise one of the awkward things about being a teenage boys is they can become visibly aroused even unknowingly or unwillingly. So the whole premise of banning that outfit is absurd and insulting.
That poor kid!! How humiliating for her!! There are times when schools need to think about the consequences (and methods) of enforcing a rule, and this was one of them! A simple 'please don't wear leggings to school again as they don't fit in with our dress rules' (quietly done, and in a way that the child was not embarrassed) so that she didn't want to wear them on another day would have sufficed, if they really had a problem with them. She was new to the school for goodness sake!! Did they at least give her a warning about it previously? Or did they go straight to heavy handed? Really poorly handled school! They have a right to have dress rules (I can only imagine how complicated it gets in American schools where there are no uniforms), but this could have been handled so much better.
As a side note, Kansas is one of the US states that allow the teaching of "creationism" alongside evolution, actually in science class. Not surprised they can't handle a pair of floral leggings!