Leggings Aren’t Pants, California School Decides

Petaluma, CA — Leggings aren’t pants — at least at Kenilworth Junior High. The school is making headlines for enforcing a new dress code that states girls wearing leggings must wear shorts, skirts, or dresses over them.

If they do not comply, the girls will not be allowed on campus. The junior high started an uproar in the community on April 4 when administrators held an assembly to inform students of the new anti-leggings policy.

Female students also claimed that the school banned them from wearing any other leg coverings that were too tight like skinny jeans and yoga pants. The reason? Apparently they are too distracting to male students.

The school’s staff later clarified that the girls may have misinterpreted the ban. The staff confirmed the ban on leggings with no coverings. However, they stated that there was no widespread ban on skinny pants. Kenilworth principal Emily Dunnagan explained:

“The concern my staff and I have is basically seeing underwear. With girls, leggings can be very, very thin, and leggings are fine as long as there is something over the top of them. We want to keep the learning environment distraction-free.”

Not only were some of the students upset at the ruling that leggings aren’t pants, some parents also took offense at the ban’s underlying implications. Local parent Jerelyn Kruljac explained, “Boys need to be taught to respect women no matter what they’re wearing, and that’s a big deal.”

Bloggers also took offense to the ban on leggings are Kenilworth. Mommyish blogger Koa Beck explained, “Frankly, the whole wandering eyes impacting academic performance is an issue for parents of said young men to concern themselves with.”

But Kenilworth isn’t the only school to declare that leggings aren’t pants. Several other school districts have tried to ban girls from wearing just leggings, though the new dress code policy has been met with protest from students.

Do you think that the school is right to ban girls from wearing leggings as pants?

[Image via Pedro Simões]