Bob CollinsUpdated 12:30 p.m. | Posted 7:19 a.m.
The girls of Osakis, Minn., will have to submit a photo of themselves wearing their prom dress if they want to go to the prom. The boys won’t have to.
The Osakis Review reports the Osakis School Board has approved the plan, hoping to eliminate the possibility that a girl would be turned away at the door.
The dress code for girls requires “length of dresses must be lower than the fingertips when arms are held straight down at sides. Tennis shoes, sunglasses and baseball caps are not formal attire and are not acceptable,” it says.
Students have to return the dress code letter after signing it, but the girls still have to also include a photo.
The process mirrors one under fire in Philadelphia where a Catholic high school is also requiring a full photo.
Archbishop Ryan High School is using two female and one male administrator to review the dresses, according to CBS Philadelphia.
School officials reportedly told one student that her dress would be accepted once she sewed up the neckline.
“I mean I went to Catholic school, but this is archaic,” said one concerned parent, who did not want to be identified.
She says her daughter’ dress was not approved.
“It has a slit in the side and it went right above the knee. According to them, when she moved it would show too much. If I think something’s acceptable for my daughter, why do I need someone else telling me yes it is or no its not?”
So far, at least 650 students have also signed a petition objecting to the “female dress code,” calling it “degrading, arbitrary and unfair.”
(h/t: Kari Knudson)
[Update 12:30 p.m.] Star Tribune reports school officials say the photo “requirement” was just a “suggestion”.
