Oh, i agree, @ucbalumnus. The school failed here as well. But since usually the people who care the most about the kid’s welfare are the parents, I would expect that the parents have the most interest in avoiding a fuss for their daughter during a difficult transition, and might even agree, temporarily, to something they later challenge, just to make a smooth start for the poor girl. When in doubt, dress up. Parents in this community know what that means. No, it may not be necessary or even matter, but high school is challenging enough and this kid apparently had a rough time before, so many moms might try to help their kid by being nice to the new school officials, talking to teachers, meeting other parents, etc. Involvement with the police and the press on the first day is not good anywhere
The mother said that she was at the prior school to withdraw her daughter due to bullying.
As to being snide, I think referring to the mother in question as “looking like trash” is also pretty snide and overly harsh. I saw a photo of her, and while this is something I would never wear, I would be wary of using such judgmental and inflammatory language. We really know very little about this woman and her situation and what led to her fashion choices or behavior in reaction to the way she perceived she was being treated. I don’t know enough about the situation to really come to any solid conclusions.
I must say I am just amazed at some of the vitriol here. So teachers should shun a child because her mother , who knew nothing about the dress code, was confronted while registering her for school? And to infer that maybe the bullying was excusable and future bullying would be understandable?
And this mother is “trash” for calling the media - what is someone who brags about having her lawyer on speed dial?
The school mishandled this situation.
@TQfromtheU I went back and read it from last week again. I apologize for getting that part wrong.
I do still think there is no reason to think a different school without a parent dress code only refrained from saying anything because she was a difficult parent. We don’t know that she was, and well, again the articles said none of the other schools have such a policy about parent dress.
Oh, the trash comment is a quote from a local news source quoting a teen girl in that community. Not necessarily saying I agree with it, just what the kid is likely to hear from her classmates. Perhaps I should have put it in quotes. Teen girls comment on what each other and mother’s wear, in this community. They are not always kind. Sad but completely predictable, so parents sometimes go out of their way not to embarrass their kid by wearing something some find objectionable.
As far as I can tell, the outfit Joselyn Lewis is wearing in the tv interview meets the dress code requirements published after she was denied entrance to school to register her daughter. So I don’t understand how her clothes were the issue. Or why they are still under discussion.
The poster “bragging about having a lawyer on speed dial” = me, has been supporting the supposed dress code violator since page three of this thread. I have absolutely zero problem with her outfit. As I wrote earlier, I like her style.
Also, I think it’s important to model for children how to stand up to bullies. If the encounter is as Lewis described, I absolutely believe pushing back is appropriate modelling for her daughter.
But does the daughter agree? Shouldn’t she be the focus here?
Thankfully the D has managed to stay out of the limelight but I know my kids would have been mortified. They wanted us all to keep as low a profile as possible and we did.
I feel this is just a very messy and unpleasant situation that could have easily been avoided by the principal or mom. At this point, they’ve gotten folks to pick sides and made it public and personal.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread. It’s gotten into a circular discussion with numerous flagged posts citing ToS violations on civility and debate.