Manitoba teenager files complaint, calling school’s dress code sexist

Landmark Collegiate
(Photo from Landmark Collegiate website)

WINNIPEG—A 15-year-old Manitoba girl and her family have contacted the Manitoba Human Rights Commission to file a complaint over her school’s dress code.

Kayla Touchette of Landmark, Man., says this week she wore a shirt with cutouts on the shoulders to the local high school.

She says the outfit was okayed by her mother but when she arrived at school, a teacher told her to cover up and made her put on a sweater.

But Kayla says boys in the school wear basketball jerseys without problem and thinks the school’s rule forbidding bare shoulders is being applied unfairly.

Randy Dueck, superintendent of the Hanover School Division, says each school sets its own dress code reflecting the local environment and are designed to create a safe space for students.

He says Landmark Collegiate applies their rules equally to boys and girls.

The school’s student handbook lays out its dress code policy, which says “shirt sleeves must cover the shoulders,” but the book only uses pictures of girls with bare shoulders.

Kayla says she was told when she first started at Landmark Collegiate that girls’ shoulders are distracting.

She says she was told: “No shoulders showing because they give boys visions.”

Her grandmother, Eleanor Touchette, says Kayla never leaves the house inappropriately dressed and shouldn’t be responsible for the way boys think.

“Since when is any person responsible for another person’s thoughts or actions?” she says.

Kayla also has her father’s support.

“I believe that my daughter’s rights were violated and that she should be able to wear which she feels comfortable in,” says Travis Robinson.