Miranda Larkin is a 15-year-old girl who goes to Oakleaf High School in Orange Park, Florida, but she was unfortunately cited by the school for violating their dress code policy!
But instead of just making her changing her “too short” skirt, they made her put on a “shame suit” instead!
We’re sorry… did we actually leave reality and go into some kind of Scarlet Letter alternate universe?!
The shame suit was UGLY, too! It consisted of an oversized yellow shirt with the following words in all caps:
“DRESS CODE VIOLATION”
And those words were emblazoned on some red sweatpants that Miranda was also forced to wear! Miranda was SO embarrassed by the cruel and unusual punishment that she broke out in hives!
Here’s what the teenager said:
“It was way too big. It didn├óΓé¼Γäót fit. I got really upset and asked if I could call my mom. She was really upset, as well.”
Miranda, who had just moved to the school in Florida from Seattle eight days earlier was unaware of the skirt policy, and, unsurprisingly, Miranda’s mother is super upset by the school’s tactics!
Here’s what said:
“I├óΓé¼Γäóm not a rescue mom. I really do believe in punishing my kids if they do something wrong, but this is not about punishing kids. This is about humiliation. This is harmful practice and it doesn├óΓé¼Γäót teach anything. It doesn├óΓé¼Γäót have any intrinsic educational value.”
We absolutely agree, and while the mother is looking into legal action – most notably something through FERPA which is an acronym for The Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act – the school’s lawyer does NOT think the mother has a case!
Here’s what the attorney said in a statement:
“I have given this consideration, looked at FERPA and have even asked other opinions in other districts. None of us see this a FERPA violation as it is not a personally identifiable student record. Additionally it is not displaying a discipline record to the public. If we put the kid on work detail all students would know that he/she is being disciplined. If we put in ISS same result. Saturday school same result. Community service, same result. If we took off the words the other students would still know that the prison orange t shirts were for dress code violations. I think that the practice is okay. In Alachua county they have t shirts that say “dress code winner”. What is the difference. As to bullying? I think some parents would say that any consequence is bullying. I see no issue with the practice.”
Wow! That statement is NOT okay in our eyes!
Just because another school also has some ridiculous practice, that doesn’t mean it’s OK for this school to do it, too!
We’re not sure if the mother has a legal case, but we definitely see something wrong with punishing a new student for breaking a rule she did NOT know was in place and then embarrassing her in front of all the people she hopes to maybe befriend!
And it’s also messed up that the school is supposed to give their students three options when they violate a dress code policy including either stay in the clothes and go to in-school suspension, to arrange for someone to bring them a new pair of clothes, or this shame suit nonsense.
Those other two sound a lot better, but apparently Miranda was only given one option!
Wow! This makes us so mad!
Get even madder by checking out a video (below) !!!