Secondary students in Quebec are protesting their school’s dress code policy after a number of girls were asked to change when they wore ripped jeans to class.
Earlier in the week, school administrators told a group of students at École Secondaire Mont-Bleu in Gatineau, Que. to go home and change their clothes because they were in violation of the dress code.
Melie Boisvert, 17, told CTV Ottawa that she was shocked when she was asked to change. She and her friends said the school also bans students from wearing leggings to school.
“The direction says leggings are too tight and it's going to be a distraction for the boys,” Maeven Climie, 13, said. “But we don't think so.”
“The boys are not savage[s]” Odelie Boudreault, 14, added. “They can control themselves.”
The principal of the school confirmed that there is a dress code in place and that several girls were asked to change their clothes earlier in the week.
To voice their objections to the dress code, the girls said they’re planning to don yellow square pins and wear ripped jeans and leggings to school every Tuesday. Some of their male classmates said they plan to support the girls in their protest by wearing ripped jeans on Tuesdays.
One of those supporters, Cédrik Coyle, 16, said he thinks there’s a double standard at the school because he wore ripped jeans to class earlier this week and he wasn’t asked to change.
“I really think sexism should stop,” he said.
The girls have also started collecting the names of students and parents in support of their cause for a petition they will present to the principal.
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Joanne Schnurr
