Girls Sent Home From Dance for Too-Short Dresses

Well, I am encouraged!

Dozens of high school girls in Mesquite, Texas were sent home from a homecoming dance because their dresses were not modest enough.

Of course the girls were outraged.

And some of their parents too.

CBS reports that “several girls say because their dates bought the tickets they never received” a flier calling for “modest” clothing and warning against wearing anything “too short” or “too tight.” Regardless, the school left the “modesty” determination up to individual administrators, and some parents and students complain that there was no consistency.

Blah, blah, blah ... I don’t want to even listen to these girls and their parents argue about failure to warn them properly or an inconsistent enforcement of the dress code. Why are these girls choosing and why are their parents approving (and paying for) too-short, too-tight, and too-revealing dresses for a high school dance?

The Salon article calls the dresses “tame” but that is not what I see in the photo included there. Perhaps this makes me sound like an old lady (but as I approach 40 I find that “old ladies” make more and more sense), but apparently somewhere, somehow, between 1993 (when I attended my high school prom) and today, it became acceptable for young girls to wear teeny-tiny dresses with super high heels to formal school events.

The Salon article raises an objection about the fact that the modesty rules at Mesquite High seem to focus exclusively on females, at least in their enforcement. Come on! Boys wear suits or tuxes to these kinds of events. It’s many of the girls for whom “dressing up” means sporting skin-tight dresses, cleavage, and lots of leg.

I am not holding my breath for these kinds of modesty standards to become the norm at high school events, but it sure is nice to see this Texas high school attempting to protect young girls (and their parents!) from their own poor decisions by taking a stand against insanity. And it sure would be nice to see other high schools inspired to take similar actions against immodesty.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There’s nothing “grown up” about young girls dressing sexy.