Teenagers suspended or hit for violating dress code

[Saya]

Erica Deramous was not trying to make a statement, disobey school policy or flaunt herself. She just wanted to enjoy her senior prom.

She was suspended all the same.

“I feel it’s stupid because I got suspended for nothing,” Deramous said.

As high school seniors in Calhoun County and across the country continue to board limousines and purchase corsages in the coming weeks for their proms, many will come under the scrutiny of school administrators with varying interpretations of what is and is not appropriate formal wear.

Deramous was one of about 25 Oxford High students who were disciplined for violating the dress code at her school’s prom Saturday. The students in violation were allowed to stay at the prom, but the following week, each was given the option of receiving corporal punishment or accepting a three-day suspension from school, Oxford principal Trey Holladay said.

“We’re using the same policy we’ve had for the last five years,” Holladay said. “Being a parent, I want to make sure girls and guys act accordingly. We’re a high school and our community has certain expectations of what is appropriate.”

Erica’s mother, Darrie Deramous, however, is convinced her daughter’s dress was just fine.

“They said her dress length was short and that it was too low up at the top,” she said. “But that’s the way they are making them now.”

Darrie said she bought the $200 dress from a reputable prom Web site.

“Styles dictate what the males and females wear,” Jacksonville High School principal Mike Newell said.

Unlike Oxford, Jacksonville administrators do not have a specified dress code for their proms, but instead extends their general school dress code to the event.

“It just has to be something reasonable that doesn’t take away from the dignity of the event,” Newell said of prom dresses. “We really haven’t had an issue. For the most part, the dresses are reasonable.”

Nancy Parris, manager of Prom Dreams in Jacksonville, said many of the dress styles her business orders each year are dictated by the school dress codes in the area – a phenomenon many in her business in other states apparently do not have to face.

When Parris travels to regional conventions in Atlanta each year to purchase new prom dress styles, others in the business are routinely surprised when she tells them about the area’s dress codes.

“People from other stores in different states say, ‘you have a dress code?’” Parris said.

She said her business also orders dresses that do not conform to codes, since some schools in the area do not have specific prom attire restrictions.

“But all are a reasonable range in style,” she said. “And most parents wouldn’t have let their children out if they didn’t think the dresses were appropriate.”

Darrie said she was not opposed to the school having a dress code, but noted she was never notified about any type of restrictions.

Holladay, however, said the school mails a copy of the school’s prom dress code to parents a week before Christmas and then gives students another copy to take home in January.

According to the Oxford prom dress code, females must wear evening gowns or cocktail dresses. The dresses cannot be made of transparent material, there cannot be slits more than four inches above the knee and there must be no revealing neck lines or back lines. The dresses can be sleeveless or strapless, provided all body parts from the shoulder to the knee are covered. Girls also can’t wear two-piece dresses with the midriff showing or with removable material covering the cleavage area.

Males must wear tuxedos or suits. They cannot wear tennis shoes or oversized clothing.

Erica said that though her dress did not meet the code, her younger sister’s dress apparently did. Her sister was not punished, even though she wore a nearly identical dress of a different color to the prom, Erica said.

To Jerry Snow, principal at Piedmont High, Oxford’s dress code is appropriate. Snow said he has nearly identical restrictions for his school’s prom and his students are given ample time to learn the school’s dress code and inform administrators of what they will be wearing to the prom.

“They have plenty of opportunity to bring pictures of the dress,” he said.

Snow, who was an assistant principal for three years at Oxford, said the code was enacted because there were problems with female students wearing dresses that were seemingly too low-cut or exposed too much skin.

“We want the prom to be a dignified affair,” Snow said. “We want people to have pictures they would want to show to their grandparents or kids.”

Saks High principal Jody Whaley said he has his family consumer science teacher approve all prom dresses beforehand.

“They can’t be too revealing,” Whaley said. “Our teacher shows (students) how to make an alteration here or to put a pin there to make the dress meet the code.

http://annistonstar.com/view/full_st...ome_lead_story

I wouldn't normally post this since schools have dress codes and yes they are stupid, but its their right to have dress codes.

What really jumped out at me was that they could either be suspended or be subject to corporal punishment. I had no idea that you were still allowed to spank students, and I'm just flabbergasted as to why they would spank teenage women for dressing too skanky for their tastes. Or think its a good idea to let a teacher do so. Yes there's a choice but....holy shit, schools still do this? And being physically hurt is a perfectly fit punishment for showing a little cleavage?

[Pineapple_Juice]

Wah wah wah. Every school has a dress code. She broke the dress code. She got in trouble. She knew what the code was. Her sister got off lucky, that's all.
Her mother isn't helping her situation by saying that "She shouldn't have gotten in trouble for her dress because that's how the popular dresses are supposed to look." Oh well sorry, by all means, let it slide in the name of fashion! And not even did she let ONE child of hers go to the prom in a dress that wasn't allowed, she let TWO. Three cheers for mom.

Then again the corporal punishment thing is weird. I didn't know that was still legal anywhere except religious private schools.

[Still Jack]

They should have naked prom. That would shut them up.

[CptSternn]

Your surprised about corporal punishment in America? Hah! You can go to jail for playing music and dancing in public in certain areas in America. This is not so surprising.

*Cue Kenny Loggins music

[Tam Li Hua]

Wait, was the school public or private? Because in my private high school, yes, corporal punishment was valid all the way up to graduation. I don't know about public schools. [Note that I don't agree with this, and find it very very weird that anyone past about the 5th grade may get spanked by a teacher. x_x;;;]

That being said, no, these restrictions don't surprise me, especially in the South. If this was So-Cal or something, maybe I'd be a little more shocked, but not here in Dixie.

As for the girl, well...she was given sufficient warning and time to pick a dress that fit the code, though I -do- think a three-day suspension or corporal punishment is a bit overkill. Maybe a day or so of detention or something, but not suspension.

[Tam Li Hua]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

YYou can go to jail for playing music and dancing in public in certain areas in America.

What are you talking about?

[Mariner]

Not surprising in the south no, but in my public high school there was absolutely no corporal punishment.

[Tam Li Hua]

^ Location has a lot to do with it. Where was your high school located?

[Entropic]

I don't know about different states, but in my school you had to consent to corporal punishment before having it administered. That being said, they rarely, if ever, told you this. They tried to twist your words to make it seem like you had no other choice.

[Tam Li Hua]

^ True, but that's a good way for the school to get sued. My public elementary school did this once, and my mom was PISSED; she had signed a form that said she and my dad would take care of any corporal punishment that needed to be had. They would have been perfectly in their rights to sue the school.

[I got in trouble for something I didn't know was wrong. I was a 'goody two shoes', and I think the other kids just wanted to see me get in trouble, the little bastards.]

[Mariner]

Originally Posted by Tam Li Hua

^ Location has a lot to do with it. Where was your high school located?

Yes, location does have a lot to do with it. I really hope that people don't read this particular case and think it's like that everywhere in the US. I went to high school in Pennsylvania.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Dear teenage girls--stop dressing like whores.

[Kalitrima]

Urgh. Now I'm thinking of my own prom dress mishap. In that it made me look like a whale.

The spanking thing is just. . . what. What. Seriously, what. If a teacher tried to paddle me, I would sock him in the jaw. Then spend the rest of my time suspended/expelled and nursing the broken bones in my hand. Or, uh, I would switch schools instantly. That one's more likely. So glad I'm not in high school anymore.

[ape descendant]

A spanking? ROFLMAO!! Thanks Alabama, you make us all look like retards.. again... some more.... *facepalm*

[Tam Li Hua]

^ All who exactly? All Southerners? Or all Americans?

[Ben Lahnger]

Hmmm ... I grew up in Wisconsin, and all those rulers rapped on my knuckles by the good sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Agony did not improve my penmanship. I'm kidding about the name of the order; I was taught by nuns at a variety of Catholic schools through 5th grade. But my point is, this doesn't just happen south of the Mason Dixon Line.

[Mariner]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

Hmmm ... I grew up in Wisconsin, and all those rulers rapped on my knuckles by the good sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Agony did not improve my penmanship. I'm kidding about the name of the order; I was taught by nuns at a variety of Catholic schools through 5th grade. But my point is, this doesn't just happen south of the Mason Dixon Line.

I've often heard that private Catholic schools use corporal punishment, but what about the public schools? Do you know if they used corporal punishment? Or was it just the Catholic schools? I only ask because I think the answer to that question is slightly more relevant since this case was at a public school.

[Tam Li Hua]

^ That's what I was wondering myself.

It's one thing to experience this in private school. Public is an entirely different ball of wax.

[Saya]

It shouldn't be allowed in private or public, especially on older kids, whats the point?

I think we had corporeal punishment not long before I started going to school, Mom told me once about how she hated my first principal because she had bad memories of him attacking students with a belt strap.

According to wikipedia, its only been banned in Canada from both private and public school since 2004, but only three provinces allowed it at that time. In America thirty states ban in it public school and only two ban it from private schools too?!

[Tam Li Hua]

^ Yes, it's wacky, and I agree, it should be banned completely, but I think it's easier to get it banned from public than from private since private schools own their own property and all, and have a great deal more say on what goes on in the school punishment-wise and what doesn't.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Why is it that you guys focus on how awful you feel the consequence is and completely forget that she broke a rule that was made clear to her?

[Gemini666]

Originally Posted by Still Jack

They should have naked prom. That would shut them up.

Hell yes! I might actually go to prom then. My school (as far as I know) doesn't have a special dress code for the prom.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Underwater Ophelia

Why is it that you guys focus on how awful you feel the consequence is and completely forget that she broke a rule that was made clear to her?

Because no matter how stupid that was of her, I don't think spanking a 17 or 18 year old woman for showing too much cleavage is anything but disturbing. If she just got sent home and even if she gets suspended, I don't care, but the fact that it was an option for them to take a beating?

[Mariner]

Originally Posted by Saya

Because no matter how stupid that was of her, I don't think spanking a 17 or 18 year old woman for showing too much cleavage is anything but disturbing. If she just got sent home and even if she gets suspended, I don't care, but the fact that it was an option for them to take a beating?

Yeah...that disturbing part of the story is pretty difficult to overlook.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by Saya

Because no matter how stupid that was of her, I don't think spanking a 17 or 18 year old woman for showing too much cleavage is anything but disturbing. If she just got sent home and even if she gets suspended, I don't care, but the fact that it was an option for them to take a beating?

First of all, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. Second, I know you'd really like to picture a sweaty man with heavy gold chains throwing a helpless teenager over his knee and making sexual comments to her while he cupped her breast in one hand and "spanked" her with the other, but you know damn well you have no evidence to support that thought.

It's entirely possible it's a female teaching smacking them on the wrist with a ruler.