Stuyvesant Protest Leads to 'Slutty Wednesdays'
Students at Stuyvesant High School in New York are protesting the dress code, enacted last fall, in order to better express themselves. The result has led to one form of protest known as "Slutty Wednesday," which is growing among the 3,300 students.
As it stands, students found in violation of the school's dress code are forced to wear oversize gray T-shirts. The rules state that shorts, dresses, and skirts should reach the end of the fingertips when extended straight down; no clothing that exposes "shoulders, undergarments, midriffs, or lower backs" is allowed, and any clothing with words or art must "be in good taste."
Students have grumbled about the rules ever since they were enacted last fall, but with the warmer weather, the dissatisfaction is beginning to reach a boiling point.
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"We're going to overpower the gray T-shirts," Madeline Rivera told the New York Times. "We're outnumbering them now."
"It's called Slutty Wednesday to symbolize that we're not actually slutty," student Benjamin Koatz told the Times. "That's the stigma, against wearing short-shorts, but actually, we're wearing what's comfortable."
Koatz is one of the leaders of the protest, using Facebook and Twitter in order to gain support and spread the message, and he is sure to give credit to his peers.
"I'd like to thank you for your kind article," he posted on New York magazine's website, "but also remind everyone that it wasn't just me who was responsible for this. It was everyone who went and everyone who influenced my thinking."
Only a few hundred of the more than 3,000 students have participated in the protest, and so far no punishment or gray T-shirts have been handed out. Officials at Stuyvesant have decided to allow the students to have their time of protest before settling back into the routine.
"The bottom line is, some things are a distraction, and we don't need to distract students from what is supposed to be going on here, which is learning," Principal Stanley Teitel told The Stuyvesant Spectator, the school's paper.
