CHICAGO — It’s that time of year again — prom season is near, and this year, some schools are cracking down on what girls can wear to the dance.
In the past few years, Marist High School on Chicago’s South Side started its prom dress code policy. But because school officials say some girls were pushing the envelope, they also added photos online to clarify what’s acceptable with green lines indicating how low-cut a dress can be in the front and in the back, WGN reported.
And students are not allowed to show their midriff either.
And for the first time this year, Rockford Boylan Catholic High School posted a new 21-page prom dress code policy. It also show examples of dresses that are banned for being too revealing in the back or having slits that are too high in front. Cleavage, or skin through cutout holes in the abdomen area, is not allowed.
But parents say with what’s being sold in stores these days, it’s hard to find something that falls within these guidelines.
At Rockford Boylan, there was some backlash this week among students over a section of the policy they feel amounts to body shaming.
It states, “Some girls may wear the same dress but due to body types, one dress may be acceptable while the other is not.”
On top of the dress code, Rockford Boylan is also issuing dancing guidelines; no grinding, hands on the shoulders or waist only and no PDS.
President of Rockford Boylan High School released a statement about the new policy saying:
As a private Catholic high school, we adhere to teaching our students moral values which include modesty. We want all students to feel beautiful in what they wear while also adhering to our values as a Catholic school.
This year for homecoming, they say they had to hand out T-shirts to some girls who wore dresses that were too revealing if they wanted to stay at the dance.
They said they won’t be doing that again — they’ll just be turned away at the door.
