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Loading...Cover Up Those Yoga Pants! Ottawa Catholic School Defends Dress Code
A Catholic high school in Ottawa has come under fire for cracking down on female students wearing form-fitting yoga pants. According to a statement from the school,
“If [students] are wearing ‘Lululemon pants’ or ‘jeggings’ of sorts, a long shirt covering them is required, otherwise they will be sent home.”
St. Joseph High School says that it is simply enforcing its dress code; the Ottawa Catholic School Board says that it is not banning students from wearing yoga pants, as they can wear them provided that they are also wearing a long shirt or similar article of clothing. Students — pointing out that there have been no similar rules applied to boys’ clothing — have started a “Save LuLus” petition (with over 300 signatures so far), in reference to the yoga pants made by the company Lululemon Athletica.
Said one female student to CTV Ottawa about a double standard regarding the the dress code:
“The guys at our school are allowed to wear pants that are around their ankles and they don’t get in trouble with it. The girls wear something just a little bit too tight and a little bit too revealing and the whole world comes crashing down.”
A parent, Kathie Clouthier, sent a letter to the school in which she asked why the school is highlighting this particular issue, but not educational concerns:
“Why is the emphasis not more on my daughter’s actual education rather than what pants she’s wearing?” Cloutier wrote. “Does our school system really have nothing better to do than come up with more reasons to make students rebel? It seems to me that schools seem to concentrate more on ‘appearances’ rather than what they are actually there for — to teach our children.
“Enough is enough already — please just worry about teaching my child rather than turning them off of attending school by imposing ridiculous bans such as this one. … As far as I’m concerned, if the schools keep pushing these ridiculous rules — all you will succeed in doing is pushing our children’s’ interest in school right out the door!”
Because Clouthier’s letter only represents the “complaint of one parent,” school board spokeswoman Mardi de Kemp said that the board will not respond.
Students have continued to wear their yoga pants. One student said that they have been told that “anyone who keeps wearing the yoga pants to school will get a detention the first time, a suspension the second, and expelled the third.” De Kemp says that there “have been no clothes-related detentions, suspensions or expulsions at St. Joseph’s this week.”
The school board has been emphasizing that it is simply enforcing its own existing dress code — meaning that, it was not enforcing its own dress code previously.
Read more: catholic high school, dress code, girls dress code, high school, lululemon, lulus, students, yoga pants
Photo by bark
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76 comments
+ add your ownI strictly support uniforms in school actually I think every school should have strict uniform codes.... it is one less distraction and every child will feel equal no one will know whose parents can afford name brands clothes versus the kids whose parents just thinks education not clothes is more important and the boys can somewhat concentrate if not being distracted by all the parts of a young lady be shoved down their throats.
Why doesn't the school just go with a uniform?
google "tight yoga pants" 80% of the photos are of women showing off their rear like a money "in season"
i have to support this! i don't think some woman look at themselves in the mirror or tilt a little backward to see their front when wearing these pants. i feel ashamed for them! you may as well be naked!
Why would anyone support this? They're not JUST
"a little bit too tight and a little bit too revealing"
And boys don't wear anything like that.
The student just want's an excuse.
Thanks for the article.
I do not see any problem with a school enforcing uniform rules, or why this would even be an issue.
I agree with school uniforms, they have a lot of benefits.
I do understand that yoga pants can be a bit unattractive on occasion (read: camel toe) depending on the wearer, bit I agree with the parents quoted in this article. This school should focus more on educating the students, whether they're wearing a poor-barrel, a potato sack, or exercise clothes, rather than making them feel unwanted and uncomfortable.
Though, I also have been present to see girls wear entirely inappropriate, low-cut, micro-mini-styled outfits before to school. I got secondhand embarrassment, and the girl was suspended. But yoga pants are definitely a far cry from THAT revealing.
I agree completely with the parent in the article.
The school needs to work on behavior issues as well as clothing choices. Creating a fair and sober working environment is not easy. I wish my town's high school would tell the cheerleaders that they can't wear their mini-skirt uniforms (since mini skirts are not allowed for anyone else or on other days).
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