About 40 high school girls in Tennessee were punished last week for wearing leggings in school without the appropriate top, skirt, or dress as required by the dress code.
Administrators at Mt. Juliet High didn't really have a problem with leggings, per se, but weren't happy to see a crowd of teenage girls apparently exposing their figures to their classmates.
"The bottom line is, the tops weren't long enough," Wilson County Schools spokeswoman Amelia Hipps told the Tennessean. "It didn't have anything to do with the leggings, it was what was [worn] over the leggings not meeting student dress code. It was just a matter of, there were several, roughly 40 female students that didn't follow the dress code and it caught the attention of a female teacher and so at that point they have to take action."
The dress code allows students to wear leggings, but only if they wear something over them that extends at least three inches above the middle of the knee. The students found in violation of that dress code were removed from class, warned, and their parents called.
When the school day was done, eight girls of the 40 were still in violation.
Both parents and students were surprised and confused by the sudden punishments since that part of the code had never been enforced. One the students, 18-year-old Ashton Cable, said the teens were told to either sit in the cafeteria, endure in-school suspension, or go home and change, WKRN reported.
"When I walked in, there was at least 50 or so girls standing around wearing all types of outfits of all different sorts. So it wasn't just me. It happened to a lot of other girls too. I guess they are just trying to get it across that leggings should be under, like wear under dresses and long t-shirts but they should not be considered pants."
Students responded to the punishment with a hashtag, #FreeTheLeggings.
