Except the student isn't female; they are non-binary.
...would letting all students do whatever they choose to do work better? It seems to me that any school has to have rules. Can you imagine a school functioning without any rules?
But you can expect them to choose not to attend this dance. No doubt, there were other students who chose not to attend, for reasons that were specific to their own situations.
If she had chosen to show up looking like a drag queen, everything else about this story and the reaction to it would have remained the same, I would think.
If a student transfers into a school let's say in grade 10 and is non-binary, uses female change rooms and washrooms, and then shows up in pants to a prom, there is NO ONE who can tell you what's in those pants OR up that skirt.
Of course schools need rules, but telling them they can't wear pants to prom is over the line. It's not up to them to decide what is feminine or masculine, or how someone interprets their own femininity or masculinity.
Seriously?!? Does that preclude me from attending prom if I happen to feel safer in pants than in a dress??? That is making the victim responsible for her own shame, her own victimization. I've been raped so I should be "expected" to choose not to attend my own prom? Wow. Just wow.
Other students SHOULD question what they are told. Otherwise indoctrination is nothing more than brainwashing. We absolutely should teach children and teens to think for themselves, to question everything, to use critical thinking. Why would it be any different for religion? Then they can examine it for themselves and truly make an informed decision about what faith practice to follow, if any.
The student is not “non binary”. The student is a female wanting to dress in male clothing.
According to you. Many people think that it's more than reasonable. A prom is supposed to be a more formal, more elaborate, event, not the usual come-as-you-are gathering.
It doesn't matter how anyone "interprets" their gender. The rules are quite reasonable when saying that attire appropriate for the event is to be worn, depending on whether the student is male or female.
Apparently, that was this school's policy, and the student had agreed to abide by the school's code of conduct.
Have you considered transferring to the local public school? They have proms, too, and you won't have the problems caused by a parochial school adhering to the standards of the church that founded it in order to offer an education that respects the values of its religious faith.
Yes I didn't even think about that. We don't have such schools.
The person is a high school student. Is it really their choice what school they go to? Probably not.
Your comments there were worded as though you were in the position of this student, so I replied in kind, that's all.
Yes that's true. They have a list of rules about clothes, school uniforms. If it was a muslim school and you were obliged to wear a burqua or if it was a mosque and you had to put off your shoes or whatever, noone would question them or go against it.
I highly doubt the parents gave that choice to the child and they may not have even known about this incident until after the fact. I didn't read the article, but I assume the parents are the ones who decide what school their child attends. Did you let your children decide where they want to go to school, or did you decide? Maybe the student went there for the full 12 years and didn't know anything else. So I would not call it a "good bet" they were in on it. Rather, I think it's a good bet they either didn't know or possibly had a family fight over it before they went to prom. Either way, I support the student in being able to wear pants to a prom. Pants can look very classy depending on the rest of the outfit. Even if they didn't identify as non-binary, anyone and everyone should be able to dress how they see fit as long as it is formal attire for the formal occasion.
Normally yes, but this school has loads of clothing rules and if these were controlling parents and the kid had no say, I don't think she'd dare go there in a suit and throw the pics on internet. We have some very strict reformed churches here. The girls have to wear a dress or a skirt and all that stuff. I heard that some who rebelled, cause they hated these dumb dull clothes, would secretly change in the train, when their parents couldn't see it, but no way they would dare to show up in jeans and throw it on internet.
You're working hard to rescue your argument, but it is very unlikely that a crossdressing, professed "non-binary" teenager who's willing to show up at a formal dance in defiance of school rules and then take it to the media in order make the case public as well...has successfully kept his or her sexual preferences and social philosophy a secret from the parents!
I don't have to rescue it. It is up to the person, and I say good for them! After all, if no one challenged the status quo, then Jesus would never have put law into the perspective of grace and mercy, never have offered salvation to Gentiles, and everyone would be stuck in the ways of early humankind with no progress.
