Nearly 100 smarties at the city’s top-performing high school bared their bodies in “risque” outfits today to denounce their school’s conservative dress code — which bans the exposure of shoulders, midriffs lower-backs, bras and undies.
Students at Stuyvesant HS in lower Manhattan held the so-called “Slutty Wednesday” protest after girls got fed up with being told throughout the year that their short skirts and sleeveless tops made them more fit for a club dance floor than for a seat at the best public school in town.
Boys complained that the administration’s apparent emphasis on keeping the girls well-covered was not only biased, but it also maligned the guys as horny teens who can’t control themselves when they see too much skin.
“We work our asses off here and school is about learning. Clothing is not important,” said ninth grader Lucy Greider, who said she’s been sent to the office 10 times this school year for over-exposure.
The dress code, which was introduced in the fall, bars students from donning tops that bear saying or drawings that aren’t in good taste.
Shorts, dresses and skirts aren’t permitted to end above the fingertips when students extend their arms down at their sides.
Principal Stanley Teitel didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
But he told the student newspaper last year — when the dress code was first under consideration — that the policy was intended to create a better learning environment.
“The bottom line is, some things are a distraction, and we don’t need to distract students from what is supposed to be going on here, which is learning,” Teitel told The Stuyvesant Spectator.