Massachusetts Teen Plans Protest of High School's Position on Yoga Pants

Emily Connolly argues the policy is unfairly body-shaming female students.

ByABC News
August 28, 2015, 9:21 AM

— -- While most kids are planning for the first day of school, Emily Connolly, a 16-year-old from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is planning a protest.

Connolly argues the new dress code policy at Cape Cod Technical High School unfairly body-shames female students.

The school’s dress code now states that “spandex, tights and yoga pants must be worn with short or a skirt.” The popular clothing items are not banned, the school stresses, but are now “considered an accessory.”

“My friends and I didn’t agree with it at all,” Connolly told ABC News. “[If] we want to just kind of go to school and sit there for eight hours in a t-shirt and leggings or yoga pants, then I feel like we should have that option.”

The school district’s superintendent, Robert Sanborn III, said in a statement that the policy is meant to help prepare students for the future, including giving them “soft skills employers seek, include an awareness of appropriate dress for appropriate venues.”

Connolly argues the new policy unfairly targets herself and her female classmates.

“Many of us think that it is because it’s considered more of a distraction to boys,” she said.

Connolly took to social media to rally her fellow classmates, creating a Facebook page to encourage students to wear yoga pants and leggings on the first day of school next week.

Connolly wrote on the page, "First Day = Yoga Pants," that they, “shouldn’t have to pay…because some boys can’t ‘control’ themselves.’”

Connolly’s case is one of just the latest of teens protesting school policies. Earlier this year, Connecticut students started a petition after a classmate was banned from prom for a dress that showed “too much skin.”