High School Bans Cheerleaders From Wearing Uniforms To School

Administrators at San Jose’s Piedmont Hills High school want girls to stop wearing super-short skirts to class — even though the school bought them. School officials have started cracking down on students who violate the dress code, but it seems no one bothered to read the policy before ordering the cheerleaders custom-made $300 uniforms. Many schools across the country require skirts to be lower than mid-thigh, but is the dress code going to far when it threatens the fine American tradition of putting teen cheerleaders in super-skimpy uniforms?

According to the San Jose Mercury News, Principal Traci Williams has issued a decree that cheerleaders must wear sweatpants under their skirts during school. Yet during games, it’s fine to expose the student body to legs and lollies (or whatever you call those little briefs). This year the school has started doing “dress-code sweeps” and pulling violators out of class until their parents come with a change of clothes. Cheerleader Antonia Bavilacqua says the squad should be exempt:

“This is really unfair to us … We’re just sad and hurt. It’s our school colors and spirit. And they’re making us feel like outcasts.”

According to every teen movie ever made, it’s up to the cheerleaders to decide who the outcasts are, so Bavilacqua shouldn’t be worried. However, the girls say they’re being discriminated against because wearing sweatpants under miniskirts is “dorky” and “it’s 95 degrees outside.”

Though the cheerleaders seemed very upset when they talked to reporters on Monday, they had a sudden and totally uncoerced change of heart the next day. According to a follow-up article:

“They’re OK with the policy now,” Principal Traci Williams said Tuesday in a conference call with several of the cheerleaders in her office, none of whom really wanted to speak publicly …

The two sides hadn’t met face to face until the story went public. And now, through the principal, the girls said they understand that Williams was trying to be fair to other students …

Well, that’s convenient, but the girls were probably right. Maybe the skirts were too short for class, but a school employee told the cheerleaders to wear them. It’s definitely unfair to send the girls mixed messages about the precise skirt length that makes one a teen harlot, rather than the embodiment of school spirit.

Miniskirt Ban At San Jose School Also Applies To Cheerleader Uniforms [San Jose Mercury News]
San Jose Cheerleaders Now “OK” With Miniskirt Ban, Principal Says [San Jose Mercury News]