While many protests have emerged against school dress codes as of late, students at Charleston County School of the Arts in South Carolina took it one step further and borrowed a leaf out of their assigned reading and incorporated The Scarlet Letter into their protest to remind everyone that teen girls' bodies are not a distraction.
The young women of Charleston County School took their literature lessons to heart and protested by wearing red letter A's as part of their outfits -- taking inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel about a young woman who is made to wear a scarlet letter "A" as punishment to publicly shame her for adultery.
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Reece Fischer, a student at the school, made an announcement on her Instagram page to inform her peers of the protest, noting that they weren't speaking out against the actual dress code, but rather the way in which it was being enforced.
According to Fischer, many students disagreed with the way girls were being taken out of class and distracted from their education, as well as the way teachers chose to administer it.
"The teachers at our school insert their own comments like 'you're selling yourself in the wrong way' or 'you're asking for it,'" Fischer told The Huffington Post.
The students also felt that the dress code unfairly targeted girls.
“Especially in the summer, you see guys walking around in muscle tank tops with half their sides hanging out and their pants hanging down, and they don’t get called out for that,” Fischer told The Post and Courier. “They don’t get called out for wearing a hat, but a girl will get called out for a short skirt in a second.”
She encouraged students to take inspiration from The Scarlet Letter and incorporate the red A into their outfits to show school administration that their bodies are not "a" distraction.
"The degradation of young women in the school system is a real, legitimate issue," she told Huffington Post.
According to the Post, over 100 students came to school with the red letter "A" on their outfits on Sept. 24.
the dresscode is important as it promotes a comfortable and professional learning environment. however, there is nothing comfortable or professional about being told you're "asking for it" or "selling yourself in the wrong way" or being told your body is "gross". I'm so proud to stand among my peers as we stand up for what's right, and that is everyone should be treated with respect. #notadistractionsoa A photo posted by REESE FISCHER (@reesefisch) on Sep 24, 2015 at 3:43pm PDT
#notadistractionsoa here's another pic from today + a shoutout to remind everyone to wear their A's tomorrow (aka bring your A-Game) A photo posted by REESE FISCHER (@reesefisch) on Sep 24, 2015 at 8:29pm PDT
Standing with the students of SOA. #notadistraction #notadistractionsoa #soawhatsgood @revadawnwill @emilymoseley A photo posted by Reva & Emily (@fieldguideky) on Oct 1, 2015 at 7:45am PDT
It's incredible to see this movement spread before my eyes. In less than a week, our story has reached Seventeen magazine, Buzfeed, Dailymail, and has been shared by the NEW YORK TIMES! It is such an honor to enact change with the movers and shakers of SOA that I am able to call my peers, and to work towards equity and respect in the implementation of CCSD's dress code at SOA. I value my education immensely and refuse to accept that it should be treated as inferior to my appearance. #notadistractionsoa #notadistraction A photo posted by taylor kahn-perry (@taylorkahnperry) on Oct 1, 2015 at 5:32pm PDT
IM SOOO HAPPY WITH THE WAY THIS WORKED OUT IT WAS SO UNEXPECTED WE ARE SUCH POWERFUL YOUNG WOMEN!!! TO ANYONE AGAINST THIS PLEASE JUST SCROLL PAST!! TO ANYONE FOR IT I LOVE YOU! TO ANYONE CONFUSED PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT WHY THIS ALL HAPPENED AND I WILL GLADLY EXPLAIN AND ANSWER QUESTIONS!! (I WISH I COULD POST THE BIG PICTURE AND TAG EVERYONE EVEN THE PEOPLE THAT COULDNT GET IN BUT INSTAGRAM HAS A TAG LIMIT UGH) #notadistractionsoa #soawhatsgood (taken by @awkwardgreenriver) A photo posted by caroline hamrick (@caroline.jpg) on Sep 25, 2015 at 4:25pm PDT
Robert Perrineau, high school assistant principal at School of the Arts, told The Post and Courier that he was impressed by the protest, calling it “learning in action.”
“This is just a reminder of what was is already in place, that we need to be consistent and be equitable and be fair to everyone,” Perrineau said.
“We do want to make sure that we’re all giving that reminder and giving attention to any individual student situation in the same way. We want the point to be made, but we want to be respectful.”
Addressing the possibility of gender bias in the dress code, he told Post and Courier, “I’m not in every class individually to say yea or nay. It’s possible that a young man has on a tank top and is overlooked and that a female student has on the very same type of tank top, and because the female anatomy is different, something was said to the female. So in that case I would understand why a teenage girl would say, ‘Well, they’re picking on me.’ ”
Fischer told Huffington Post that she hopes the protest will call attention to the ways girls bodies are regulated in schools.
"It's just amazing to feel supported," she said. "The fact that [the issue] is being recognized as something socially relevant and important is more than any 16-year-old could ask for."