A Texas high school is under fire for producing a video targeting dress code violators — and singling out only girls wearing shorts, according to a report.
The video, shown by administrators at Marcus High School in Flower Mound last week, showed shorts-clad teen girls walking around the halls until they are reprimanded and ushered into a “dress code violator” classroom as the song “Bad Girls” by M.I.A. plays.
“Repeat after me: I will not wear athletic shorts,” a teacher barks at the students in the video.
A student soon posted the clip to Twitter, where she blasted the school for sexism and quickly racked up thousands of likes and re-tweets.
“Today my school was shown this video,” Cat Moring wrote. “So sad how ONLY girls are shown as the violators. I understand why my school has a dress code, but what about the boys who wear shorts, or show their shoulders? It’s 2018…Why are we still over-sexualizing teen girls?”
Moring told ABC News that she was shocked by the video.
“The first thing that came to mind was the blatant sexism and lack of diversity,” she told the outlet. “Not only were there no boys but there were no people of color, plus-sized individuals or people that identify as gender non-binary; all people who wear athletic shorts.”
“My issue was never the fact that my school wanted us to have a dress code,” Moring added. “My issue was the fact that nobody in administration or the student body involved was able to see this video before they showed it to everyone, and recognize that this shouldn’t be shown.”
She said that she never posted the video with the intent of gaining national attention — but felt “hopeful” after receiving a supportive response from so many.
“Seeing people from around the globe interact and agree with me on Twitter has made me so hopeful for the future,” she told the station.
The day the video was posted, Principal Will Skelton — who is in his first year in the role — issued a letter apologizing to parents saying that the video “absolutely missed the mark.”
“I’m a firm believer that when you make a mistake, you own it, you apologize, and you make it right,” Skelton wrote in the letter obtained by ABC. “Please accept my sincere apology for not ensuring our video achieved its intended purpose — to remind ALL students of our dress code expectations.”
