Père-Marquette School | Students denounce “inappropriate” verification of the dress code

An intervention aimed at enforcing the dress code of the Père-Marquette school provoked a demonstration in front of the secondary school last Friday. During the verification operation, employees put their hands on the legs of the students – mainly girls – to measure the length of the shorts.

Ariane Kroll
The Press

“They would take four fingers from their hand and they would put them on our knees or above the knee to see if our shorts were okay. I found it really inappropriate, “said a fifth-grade student, Frédérique Vrignon, in a telephone interview with The Press Monday.

The school dress code specifies that skirts and Bermuda shorts must be long enough so that the uncovered part above the knee does not exceed the width of the palm of a hand placed horizontally. It was, however, the first time that staff had applied the order so literally.

Students have even been sent home to change.

The operation aroused all the more indignation as girls seemed to be targeted more systematically.

“There was a line of 35 to 40 girls waiting to get checked out, but in all that line, I didn’t see a single guy! “, told us Alexis Audette, also in fifth secondary. Although his shorts were deemed “a little bit short”, he was not subjected to manual measurement.

“Out of 30 girls, there was maybe a guy, that’s what was really confronting”, also noted Frédérique during her visit.

The operation was carried out by teachers and an assistant director of the establishment, confirmed to us the director of the school, Éric Benoît. He himself was not on the scene, but he had made an appeal to respect the code for all students the day before.

“I think they were trying to get their hands on it to show, but we don’t want to touch the students,” he said Monday. “We came back and said, ‘No, no, no, we’re not doing this as an intervention!’ »

Demonstration in front of the school

A hundred students, according to management’s estimate, demonstrated in front of the school on Friday noon. Some held up posters reading “Stop sexualizing our bodies”, “Our thighs don’t deserve to be sexualized” and “I go to a school where the length of my shorts is more important than my education”.

The protest was short-lived, however, as the management let it be known through the student council that the dress code would be temporarily relaxed.

“Short sports-type shorts” (jogging, volleyball, basketball, padded bike shorts) are still not permitted, but “short leggings (short-type shorts without padding) and black jeans-type shorts” are currently permitted , confirms the letter sent to parents at the end of the day on Friday.

Père-Marquette found herself in this situation after her air conditioning system broke down last week during the heat wave. The parents had to rush out the summer clothes as the children had grown since last year, the school principal admitted.

The dress code will be discussed at the next school board on June 6. “I’m hopeful that we can come to a solution in the form of an amendment,” indicated Mr. Benoît.

Outcry in Ontario

Another demonstration against the application of the dress code was held in front of an Ontario secondary school last Friday, with far more resounding consequences.

Nearly 400 students from the Béatrice-Desloges Catholic high school, in the Orleans sector, in Ottawa, demonstrated against an operation carried out the day before to check the length of the clothes worn in class.

Young people, especially girls, were reportedly forced by staff to bend over in public to show the length of their shorts and skirts, in classrooms and in the hallways, reports circulating on Thursday and Friday said.

The operation sparked strong reactions on social networks, including from candidates campaigning for the provincial elections.

The administration of the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE) finally apologized in a press release on Saturday, saying it was “sincerely sorry for this outcome” and promising “to ensure that such a situation does not happen again. more “.

The CECCE confirmed that students, “mostly girls”, had to go out into the corridor, and that some “were asked to bend their leg backwards at the knee”, but wrote that “no student was asked to lean.

The strategy used “is not acceptable”, nevertheless recognized the Council, adding that “many students felt degraded and humiliated”.

With Silvia Galipeau, Marie-Eve Morasse, The Press, The rightRadio-Canada and ONFR+