Georgia 8th grade student fights discriminatory dress code one day at a time

Sophia Trevino, an 8th-grade student at Simpson Middle School in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, was written up for an outfit that she wore to the school on the first day of her eighth grade. She was wearing a white Los Angeles T-shirt, a new pair of black distressed jeans and Air Force 1 sneakers.

While her parents and friends did not find a problem with her outfit, a teacher at the school said that her outfit was inappropriate in compliance with the dress code at Simpson Middle School. Apart from her, 15 more girls were written up before the first period.

Since that episode, Sophia and other Simpson Middle School students, have worn T-shirts that denounce dress codes as “sexist,” “racist” and “classist.”

“Cobb County says that parents are best suited to decide about whether their child wears a mask, but that they are not best suited to decide what the child wears on their bodies,” Sophia wrote in a petition.

The parents and students, protesting the rules, cited the Cobb County School District’s policy on face coverings. According to the policy, the school leaves it up to the parents to decide if a student should wear the mask or not. “If adhering to a public health measure is optional, why can’t students opt out of a dress code they see as discriminatory?” parents say.

In a statement, Cobb County School district spokesperson said that the district’s rules for student dress “encourage a focus on learning for all 110,000 students in Cobb, not on what students prefer to wear.”

She added that the dress code “includes a minimum standard of dress and exists, per the policy, so students dress in a way which is ‘consistent with the formality of school.'”

According to a 2020 study, a University of New Hampshire professor, who has done research on the litigation of dress codes in public schools, said that the focus on covering girls’ bodies is a major contributor to the problem that dress codes aim to address: inappropriate sexualisation of female students.

In an analysis of dress codes at 25 New Hampshire public schools, it was found that dress codes targetted girls with policies on covering breasts, cleavage, collarbones and shoulders.

“The problem with this theme is the ascribing of ‘provocation’ to female clothing,” the study reads. “In other words, the dress choice of females is presumed to be designed to attract attention from males.”

Sabrina Bernadel, a fellow at the National Women’s Law Center, said: “Dress codes are definitely sexist. They put the onus on girls to not be distracting or not call attention to themselves instead of putting the onus on all students to respect everyone’s body.”

She said that when it comes to dress code violations, Black and brown girls are written up the most. Followed by Black boys, white girls, white boys.

“I don’t think you can pick and choose that reasoning,” Sarah Trevino, Sophia’s mother and a lawyer in the Atlanta area, said of the county’s stance on parents deciding if their children wear a mask or not. “If you’re going to use that reasoning whether to put a strip of cloth over your child’s face, it should be the same reasoning if you’re going to put a strip of cloth over their thigh,” she added.

What the Simpson Middle School dress code says: “All shorts, skirts and dresses must be fingertip length.” This means when students hold their arms at their sides, their longest finger must still touch fabric.

“In school, they think that the boys are just drooling over our shoulders and our thighs,” Sophia said. “They aren’t. They don’t care. And even if they do, that’s not our fault. That’s theirs.”

Sophia’s solution

Sophia has been gaining steam with her petition as she is joined by 50 to 60 students since the protests began. With a simple dress code – shirts, bottoms, shoes – she aims to changes the school district’s dress and make it gender-neutral.

The policy would allow tops that show the abdomen, midriff, necklines and cleavage. The bottoms could expose legs, thighs and hips. Groin, buttocks and nipples would need to be covered.

She said that her proposed dress code hasn’t received “too much” backlash.