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Boston Latin students will still be able to wear leggings; headmaster, students to meet on dress code
By adamg on Mon, 10/24/2016 - 8:40pm
Interim Boston Latin School Headmaster Michael Contompasis today agreed to lift the impending ban on uncovered leggings and to meet with students to look at possible revisions in the school dress code.
The news comes from Charlie Cao, the Boston Latin School sophomore who started the online petition against the school's ban, due to be enforced starting next week:
This morning, a fellow student and I had a long discussion with Mr. Contompasis and several other administrators and we agreed that many aspects of the dress code should be reviewed and looked over. Also Mr. Contompasis agreed to allow leggings to be worn due to somewhat of a misunderstanding. However, we are still not done with our job. This is where we might need your help. Now we seek your input. We can not move forward as a school without a voice from the student body. I now ask you to look over the dress code and tell us what parts of the dress code need to change and why.
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
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 BLS senior Livia Kelly explains why she started wearing leggings | 37.45 KB |
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Comments
Looks like Mr C has gotten
Looks like Mr C has gotten soft in his old age. A shame, really.
Looks like he's improved with age
Good for him being willing to listen to students about something that concerns them.
The question I have, Adam..
is how much input should kids have on school policies, in general?
This isn't 1950
The modern workplace that you think that they should wear expensive and impractical clothing to access doesn't work like a military brig anymore.
And, no, I'm not getting off your lawn this time, pops.
Don't understand why you are
Don't understand why you are so insistent about standing on other people's lawns?
Other people's lawns are an
Other people's lawns are an excellent place to pee.
When did we become so sappy as a society?
Just because children are talking doesn't mean it is worth listening to, and certainly not acting upon.
Dress code
The leggings issue is pc run amok.
Leggings alllowed in a gym and yoga studios.
They are not ok in a business setting.
Boston Latin School ...
Is not a workplace, at least not for the people for whom the dress code was written.
Students should dress
Students should dress respectfully for school.
I think "appropriately" is a better word.
n/t
No.
I like the word respect. Respect for the school as an educational institution. Respect for the instructors. Respect for fellow classmates.
Dressing like you are off to the gym doesn't cut it.
So no t-shirts then?
So the boys shouldn't wear T-shirts? You know, because those are worn to the gym? And I'm not just asking about Latin -- I'm asking about all schools.
It's time we started asking boys to focus on their work rather than demand girls take measures so as to not be sexually attractive to their peers.
I'm wearing leggings to work right now
They are thick. They have pockets. They actually fit me.
That is the problem - define "leggings".
Charles
What a progressive and sympathetic young man. It's noble of him to get behind this movement.
I expect his next strike will be liberating women from the oppressive double standard of having to wear shirts.
He's the hero those teens need
And he's not afraid to say "student body" when championing leggings.
But seriously, BLS students aren't stupid. They will make sure that college admissions people see some leadership and progressive angle on this.
It is an oppressive double standard
Why do we have to wear shirts in places where men do not?
Try to explain that without using the words "disgusting" or "sexual".
You've got me all wrong
I agree with you completely.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Somewhat of a misunderstanding?
By whom? I'm guessing that the kids didn't bother to actually understand what the rules were, freaked out and overreacted.
There may be an over-step
There may be an overstep by BPS to some degree. What they are seeking to control is something that is in popular fashion and commonly purchased at stores such as Target, Old Navy, and a host of other shops around the city ranging from small chains to mom & pop stores.
Dress codes can and do impact whole families, especially low-income families who are purchasing "trendy" clothes off the rack, only to be faced with a sudden problem with school dress codes that may be out of touch with time and place.
The BPS code may also be on the edge of other legal issues.
The banning of certain "slogan" shirts is also controlling free speech, and school districts elsewhere have been taken to court and paid heavily. Where does one start and stop controlling what is displayed on clothing? There are plenty of press clips about kids who have been told to go home and change or reverse their shirts because of unpopular speech being displayed. Most all fo them have won against school districts when challenged. Why then, if this information is readily available would BPS set itself up for these legal challenges which could be costly?
And then the whole "gang symbolism" thing. Do they have a list of what is not acceptable and are they publishing it so families know? Should we be banning all red bandanas and red sneakers? Don't know that one? Ask a cop.
I am reminded of the story of a teen in school in the midwest who wore a pentacle pendant to school and was told to remove it as it was a gang symbol. Yet, no gangs in that area used such. The teen was an adherent of an Earth-Centered spirituality and wore the pentacle much like a Jew would wear a Star of David, or a Christian would wear a Cross.
That family sued and won and the school district paid out over $15-thousand in fines for religious discrimination.
Are some students "under-dressing" for their age. Yes, they are, but you need to address that with parents on an individual basis and not paint the whole system with a broad brush. You are only setting yourself up for a law suit down the road. And us tax payers will pay that out, and the city budget will then have a shortfall. Then less for schools, etc. It is a slippery slope.
Think hard before you act.
Disruption
All that freedom of speech stuff goes out the window in a school. Kids have been trying to use that to defend saying stupid, sexist, insulting things as long as I have been around.
If something is disruptive to the learning experience, the school has the right to take action to remove the disruption. Clearly I am entitled to wear a "Hillary for Prison" t-shirt and walk down the street. Totally protected. At school that same shirt could be considered disruptive (which it very well might be) and they can tell me to take it off. It's the same with clothing that is too "distracting". While it's a very slippery slope to define the line where "attractive" turns to "distracting", the school completely has the right to make that call and take action as needed.
Nice mansplaining there
"Distracting" and "Disruptive" could be used to ban girls altogether ... oh, wait, it WAS used to ban girls from Latin in days gone by!
And the dilution of the Latin
And the dilution of the Latin School experience continues .........
You poor baby
You poor baby.
What year is this again?
I'm sure that lameness was spewed about when Latin went co-ed., too.
WAHHHAHHH IT ISN'T WHAT I WENT THROUGH NOOOOOOO!
Leggings Oh My!
Because of some immature students who have NO idea what the future holds for them the administration buckled. Very sad
Nah
You obviously don't know Contompasis. About as far as you can get from being a buckler.
In fact, he taught the kids a valuable lesson: Make a good case, calmly and rationally, and people will listen to you.
Terrible lesson.
They didn't make a good case, they made a loud case. He buckled. Like you said, he maybe doesn't have a history of buckling, but there is nothing else to call what he did. First time for everything.
Don't blame the kids ...
For the media picking up the story. BLS is kind of like Harvard (after all, everybody knows Harvard was founded to give BLS students a place to go) - pretty much anything that happens there will garner media attention in a way news at other schools just doesn't (quick: Somebody show me an MSM story that names the interim headmaster at the O'Bryant).
They didn't send out a press release, they didn't stage a walkout or anything like that: They put up a petition and they calmly requested a meeting with the headmaster, which he agreed to have.
People keep going on and on about how important it is not to wear leggings so they learn how to survive in the workplace; learning how to make convincing arguments is, if you ask me, just as an important thing to learn. Aw, hell, I'd rate it as even more important.
Agree, but parents should get some input as well
I think the school handled it well, and so did the students.
The school should ask parents what they think. If there is a strong feeling that certain aspects of the code should remain, then it should. The school shouldn't pull the rug out from them when they may have been waging a battle against a certain item or style.
The code, as written, sounded pretty reasonable to me. I'm actually surprised about the "three finger width" rule for straps. Does that mean guys can wear tank tops?
Well done, young ladies! Your
Well done, young ladies! Your voices have been heard and fairness and reason have come out on top. Girls and women have been wearing leggings for decades now: there is nothing wrong with leggings! They are comfortabe, inexpensive, can be combined with many different tops and are easy to move around in.
great letter by the student
Have you complainers about leggings actually read the article by the student? School isn't the workplace, get over yourself.