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Students Protest School Dress Code... For Boys

A group of boys at California’s Buchanan High School showed up to class in dresses to protest the school’s discriminatory dress code.

A group of boys at California’s Buchanan High School showed up to class in dresses to protest the school’s discriminatory dress code.

The student protest last week was in response to a new policy that banned boys from having long hair and wearing earrings. According to Fresno Bee, the new dress code also implied that dresses and skirts were only for girls. As a result, female students also got involved with the protest by wearing male button-down dress shirts to school.

“The reason we switched gender norms for the day was to make the statement that what we wear does not define us as students,” Emma Sledd, senior student at Buchanan, explained. “Our district’s dress code should not favor or discriminate any gender. We believe everyone should be able to express themselves equally. A boy with long hair is no less of a hard worker than a girl with long hair.”

In addition to the protest, the students also started a petition urging Clovis Unified School District to approve a gender-neutral dress code. The petition now has nearly 3,500 signatures.

Interestingly, the district’s policy goes directly against the state law that protects gender expression, and American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California called them out on this.

nick and all the other boys that wore dresses looked beautiful today!!! #dresscodesucks #cusddresscodesucks

A photo posted by Nina Bash her in the face (@ninabasher) on


Teachers are also backing up their students. “While some teachers dress-coded a few of the people in protest, most of our upper administration is supportive of what we’re doing,” Rei Bioco, junior student at Buchanan, told Buzzfeed News.

This isn't the first time students have protested their school dress code. Watch the video above to find out more.

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