06:00:00
Jef Rouner says his 5-year-old daughter Katy loves
to shop -- so much so that she even picked out the rainbow sundress that she
wore to school on April 20.
"We woke up last
Monday and she's been asking to wear it," Rouner, of Houston, told ABC
News. "She's worn it to school before, and church. She's worn it all over
the place."
When picking up Katy from
school that day, Rouner said she walked out of her kindergarten classroom still
wearing her dress -- only it was covered up with a change of clothes.
"When I picked her up
it was 80 degrees in Houston and she came out with this black shirt on and
jeans underneath a floor-length dress," he said. "She had this scowl
on her face and when I asked what was wrong she said, 'Spaghetti straps are
against the rules.'
Though both Rouner and the
school now agree that spaghetti straps are, indeed, against school policy,
Rouner was so angry about the enforcement of the rule that he wrote a blog entry for the Houston
Press, where he is a freelance contributor, complaining that the rule is
sexist.
"I was very, very
angry," he said. "You go over to Target and go to the boy's section,
there is not a single item on that rack that a boy can wear to school that he
would be told it was inappropriate -- nothing."
Rouner said although he
has not yet gone to the school to complain directly, he has plans to do so.
A representative of the
Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District issued the following statement to
ABC News: “As part of district policy, parents sign the Student Handbook at the
beginning of each school year. This is an acknowledgement that they have read
and understand the guidelines within. Dress code is not determined by the age
of the student. The teacher visited with the student about the dress code. The
student had a change of clothes in her backpack and offered to change. The
outfit she decided on was her choice. The parent involved has made no attempt
to contact the teacher or administrators to express any concerns or ask
questions regarding the dress code.”
Rouner admitted that he
read the district's student handbook in the beginning of the year, which states
the following: "Students are not to wear clothing that is tight, loose,
sagging, baggy, revealing, spaghetti-strap, backless, low-cut or short."
"I certainly didn't
go out and buy the dress to challenge it," he said. "I would say
that, in general, the only way a boy can violate the dress code other than wear
a t-shirt with an offensive logo is by messing up their clothes. A girl can
break the dress code just from buying her clothes.
"I think it’s a
problem that when you look at a 5-year-old and you see her exposed shoulders
that you consider it a distraction worth covering up. I would it is indignitive
and apparently a sexist problem."
"I do think it was
very telling," he said. "In the last day or so, I have had women and
girls from all over the world send me tweets and messages saying every day they
walk around worried about being judged if their dress is too short, or their
top is too low, and that bothers me."
Rouner said he plans to
schedule a meeting with Katy's teacher regarding the incident.
"I want to know who
made the decision and I want to know why," he added. "Maybe they have
a perfectly good reason. I'm going to tell them to look at the code and see how
much it's designed to make girls responsible for the way other people feel
about them.
"I couldn’t see any
reason why this dress would upset anybody," he said.
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