The Dress Coding

Freshman Zoe Langsev was sitting at lunch on September 13 with a group of upperclassmen when she was approached by EHS Assistant Principal Jenn Carter. After Carter asked Langsev if she could speak with her for a minute, Langsev followed Carter to a quieter part of the Commons, where she was informed that her outfit violated the school’s dress code.

As it stands currently, Edina Public School’s Policy 504 on Student Dress defines inappropriate clothing as “clothing…that is sexually explicit or which conveys sexual innuendo or that may reasonable be construed as sexual.” Knowing this, Langsev’s initial reaction to being dress coded was confusion. “In my head I was like, I know the dress code, and [my outfit’s] not against it,” said Langsev.

Langsev was then given the options to either put on a t-shirt over her tank top, or call her parents. “I said call my parents,” said Langsev. “My mom knows I’m wearing this, and there’s nothing wrong with it.” After being given a couple of minutes to finish her lunch, Langsev followed Carter to her office to make the call.

After talking to Langsev’s mother, it was agreed that Langsev could wear a cardigan of Carter’s in order to cover her back. Before she returned to lunch, Carter asked Langsev if she had any questions, to which Langsev responded “Yeah, why is it okay to sexualize women like this?” Carter repeated that what Langsev was wearing was against the school’s dress code, and after some more discussion Langsev was allowed to return to lunch.

Langsev’s reaction to being dress coded was similar to the feelings of many teens who had been in similar situations. “I had this weird feeling, like, I just felt kind of violated,” said Langsev. “After I was done talking to [Carter], I go back to lunch and for some reason everyone knew what happened…the whole situation just made me uncomfortable.”

As news of the dress coding spread, many students took to social media to express their disappointment and outrage with how the district policy was being enforced. Suggestions for different forms of protest spread like wildfire, and eventually the general student population fell upon the decision to dress as “hoes” [sic] on September 14 in order to call out what they believed was the unnecessary censorship of students’ clothing. By evening, #EHShoeitup was trending.