A Kentucky high school senior is speaking out about her school’s dress code and principal, who checked the length of her dress in a totally inappropriate way.
According to WBKO, Amanda Durbin showed up to school last Friday, Jan. 15, wearing a sweater dress with thick leggings underneath. She even wore tall boots to cover her legs. However, Principal Tommy Hodges called her into his office because her outfit seemed “inappropriate” for school.
The 17-year-old was then asked to kneel on the floor to have the dress’s length checked.
“I didn’t really appreciate having to get down on my knees, especially while I was in a dress,” said Durbin, according to BuzzFeed News. The rule made Amanda uncomfortable, so she waited for her parents to arrive at the school.
The first time that Hodges measured her outfit, the dress was only five inches from the ground—making Durbin’s outfit perfectly acceptable. This is when Hodges told her to walk across the room with her arms up, and then re-measured her. The dress ended up approximately eight inches from the knee (Edmonson High School’s strict dress code stated that dresses could not rise more than six inches from the knee). After waiting two hours for her parents and missing most of the school day, she went home due to her violation of the dress code.
“I’ve had people saying that’s something they would wear to church. If it’s appropriate for you to go to church in, why isn’t it appropriate for you to go to school in,” asked Durbin’s mom, Alexandria, according to WBKO.
In an interview conducted with the Kentucky news station Monday, Hodges defended the school.
“If the gap between the floor and the garment is more than six inches it’s out of dress code,” he said. The administration also stated that they were open to dress code changes.
“I feel like I was somebody that had done something wrong even though I know I hadn’t,” Durbin told WBKO.
The school’s dress code rules not only oversexualized a completely conservative dress, but shamed Durbin as well. In a time where people are finally speaking out about body-shaming dress codes, telling a student to get down on her knees is extremely degrading and inappropriate.