Lewisville ISD apologizes for girls-only dress code video
FLOWER MOUND, Texas - A video about school dress code has Lewisville ISD leaders admitting they missed the mark.
The list of complaints from Marcus High School students and parents include showing only girls in violation of the dress code and a lack of diversity. Lewisville ISD has since apologized saying it needed to own up to the mistake.
The principal of Marcus High School says they couldn't do their normal fashion show to show kids the dress code. That’s why they decided to do a video.
This video was meant to be informative and let kids know about the dress code at Marcus High School in Flower Mound. Instead, it's being described as insulting and offensive.
The video shot inside the school only featuring girls violating the dress code. It got immediate and widespread backlash on social media from parents and kids. The video was also set to the song "Bad Girls" by MIA, which the principal called a poor song choice.
The video shows girls wearing short athletic shorts in the hallways. A teacher then directs them all to a classroom and tells them to instead wear leggings or jeans.
Principal Will Skelton apologized to parents and students, adding that it was meant to be light hearted but clearly fell flat. Many took issue that it only showed female dress code violations and didn't address dress code rules for males.
Marcus HS Senior Catherine Moring says she and other kids were shown the video in school Thursday. She posted the video on Twitter. It's been viewed thousands of times.
“This video kind of just pushed it too far in regards to sexism and deeming that girls are not able to wear the same exact clothes that boys are allowed to wear,” she said.
"I think that it really hit me whenever they showed all of the dress code violators and there were no males in the entire room,” said student Nicole Hollowell. “It was shocking to see the school put out a video that was panning on girls’ legs in shorts while saying that the shorts were out of school dress code."
After the video was posted on social media, parents called it appalling, sexist, and insulting.
"It was just girls who were your average Texas-girl, skinny, blond,” said student Catherine Moring. “It didn't show the student body. There was no boys in the video. There was no people of color. No one overweight. All people who also wear athletic shorts."
The principal began his statement to parents by saying “when you make a mistake you own it, you apologize, and you make it right.”
Overwhelmingly, parents and kids seemed to appreciate that the principal admitted to the mistake and apologized. He invited parents to call him directly if they want to discuss it further.