Lyndon Town School Stirs up Controversy on Sexism

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Created on Tuesday, 01 April 2014 15:23

Written by Jessie Slater

LYNDON- Lyndon town school held a meeting last night to discuss parents concerns on how the school is handling it's changes in the dress code. Many parents were upset with the way the school handled the situation.

 Faculty went as far as to pull all of the middle school girls out of class to speak with them about their attire. The school felt that talking to these girls one on one was no longer enough and thought addressing them as a whole would send a better message.

Parent, Angela Randall, expressed that she didn't it was fair to separate the girls from the boys. "I thought it was sexist, I thought it was bullying." Randall, says that by separating the students, the principal was creating the core of what sexism is.

Female students were apparently told they need to "cover up their curves" because they were a "distraction" to the learning environment. Parents were furious about the situation, worrying that their daughters will feel insecure. Randall goes on to say, " I feel like girls can eternalize that what they wear and what they do, could be a course of blame."

The ladies of the middle school class are now confused as to why they need to change the way they dress, but the boys don't have to change their behavior. Student ,Trisha Estman, says, "not talking to the boys makes me feel like they are treating them like princes, like they're okay with them just staring at us and they are okay with their baggie pants."

Superintendent of Schools and Title Nine coordinator, Victoria Scheifler, said that the incident was not a violation of the Title Nine agreement and that it is not unusual for staff to talk to students as a whole. Scheifler commented about the meeting saying, "the administration handled the situation promptly and they thought that the meeting was the best thing to have to answer any questions and clean up this confusion."

The parents are asking the school to formally apologize to the entire student body and try to fix the issues stemming from the situation. Principle, Amy Gale, declined to comment but stated at one of the meetings that she was "very sorry for the way the school dealt with the issues" but felt there was a lot of misunderstanding.

Gale plans to meet with the entire student body and properly apologize as soon as possible.