Stanton College Preparatory School, located in Jacksonville, Florida, is famous for its rigorous curriculum and award-winning students. This past year, it has reclaimed its #1 spot in the state and keeps a lofty place among the nation’s top public high schools. Due to the entirety of May being taken up by AP and IB testing, the school is holding its prom in the first week of April.
This week is the first week back from spring break, and is already to a rough start: on Monday, a handful of images were pinned to bulletin boards around the school, depicting various images of prom dresses. “Going to Stanton prom? No you’re not!” reads the captions underneath presumably “inappropriate” dresses. However, a more conservative dress at the top left reads something different: “Going to Stanton prom? Yes you are! Good girl!
Good thing they told us a week before prom it's not like everyone has their dress already……. pic.twitter.com/3nOKhSTu4R
— Lily (@LILwillingham) March 27, 2017
Posting this new “dress code” a week before prom is a problem in itself — girls have been shopping and planning for prom for literal months, and dresses are expensive. Not everyone can afford to run out and buy a new dress. But if only the problems stop there. While it ‘s understandable the school administration wishes to keep a dress code to reinforce the traditional “classy” prom vibe, doing it in this manner is extremely unprofessional. The usage of the words “good girl” manages to patronize and objectify the entire student female population in just two words. Notice how these images are targeted specifically to the young women of this school. There is not one image of how a young man should and should not dress.
As stated above, Stanton is known for its star students and athletes. The administration is speaking to said intelligent women as though they are mere dogs incapable of choosing the “right” dress. 20/31 of this year’s National Merit Finalists from Duval County, where Stanton is located, are women — and here those same women are, among countless others, being needlessly degraded.
Some have felt that students (and the general Twitterverse) are overreacting, that it’s “just prom, it’s no big deal.” It is a big deal. Students of any gender should be able to dress comfortably in a way that makes them feel good without the constant “it’s distracting” shoved down their throats. If this happened in a corporate workplace, with signs posted by the CEO, it would be immediately filed as sexual harassment. But because this is happening with high school students, most of whom are underage, it’s suddenly “overreacting”?
Students have taken to Twitter to voice their contempt under the hashtag #scpgoodgirl.
#scpgoodgirl it's one thing to send out prom dress rules a WEEK before, but to make them overtly sexist toward intelligent women? c'mon now
— Alex (@alexandramonk_) March 27, 2017
prom theme: around the world
*friend is Indian & had trad 2 piece dress made*
admin: cant wear bc doesnt follow #scpgoodgirl qualifications— ?????? ????? (@lyssapitre) March 27, 2017
ALL our Stanton women deserve to feel confidently beautiful for this special night #scpgoodgirl
— Stanton Multi (@stantonmulti) March 27, 2017
our bodies. our minds. our power.
— Carolyn Lok (@carolynmlok) March 27, 2017
UPDATE 3/28: This morning, Mrs. Nongongoma Majova-Seane, principal of Stanton College Prep, issued a formal apology to the students.
“Please do accept my apology for this poor delivery of information,” she said via intercom. “Our intent is to make sure that prom is enjoyable and memorable. We have never turned away anyone from prom, so if you already have your attire, please buy your tickets at lunch, continue with your class spirit week, and look forward to an enjoyable prom on Saturday.”
https://twitter.com/Taylor_Stair11/status/846701740472913922
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