TRENDING

Sometimes, school dress codes can be *majorly* annoying. When you head back to class, you have to put away your tanks and shorts, even though temps could still be soaring! While we understand some parts of a school dress code, some rules seriously perplex us. One Illinois teen finally had enough of the rules and fought back.

Grace Goble wore an appropriate (and on-trend!) off-the-shoulder sweater for her yearbook photo. When she received the photos, she was shocked to learn that the studio who took the photos hadn’t cleared any of the shots for publication in the yearbook. Why? They said her sweater violated the school’s dress code because it showed the tops of her shoulders. 

Grace immediately took action: She created a petition on Change.org to change the school’s dress code. She wrote that she had worn the sweater to school many times without any problems, and that if the sweater was such an issue, she should have been prevented from taking her portrait with the sweater on. 

“It is ridiculous that young women aren’t allowed to wear the clothing that they wish to wear simply because it could possibly distract someone,” she wrote. “Why must young women be denied the ability to express themselves through their fashion simply because there may be a few people out there who cannot control themselves?”

She also pointed out sexism in the policy, including the fact that boys were allowed to wear tank tops, while girls would have to change into their gym uniform if they were caught in a tank.

So what happened with the peition? The signatures kept coming and coming until the petition finally caught the attention of her school principal. Grace’s photo was allowed to be included in the yearbook, and her principal worked with Grace to create a solution to the dress code sitch. Now, Grace and her fellow classmates will work together to revise the rules and regulations. 

Hopefully, Grace’s successful petition will allow other schools to get the message that parts of school dress code rules are outdated and sexist, and should be revised.

What do you think about Grace's petition? Does your school have a strict dress code? Sound off in the comments below! 

Photo credit: WGN-9 News.

by Maddie McGee | 7/30/2017