https://www.yahoo.com/style/high-school-student-makes-yearbook-quote-dress-code-162834794.html

I find it surprising that a self-described “AP student” has difficulty understanding the concept of a dress code. Dress codes are enforced to ensure that a person’s choice of dress – male or female – does not become a distraction to education.

Since she did not cite any specific incident that reflects the sexism she alleges, we are left to believe that this is her opinion and not based on any official justification of the dress code policy.

Ms. DiPaolo as states, “I’ve spent hours sitting in principal’s offices because 40-year-old men were offended by my back showing.” Again, she doesn’t cite any incident in which the principal stated that he was offended. Whether or not he is offended, he has the task of determining if she is in violation of the dress code.

She also states, “How much of my skin is exposed when it’s 90 degrees out is more important than me receiving an education at a school?” as her “classic response” to being told to go home. The fact that it is 90 degrees outside does not mean that you get to violate the dress code inside. When it rains, we use umbrellas. When it is snowing we wear boots and heavy coats that we take off when we come indoors.

I took the time to comment on this as it relates to another similar issue, reported by CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/09/us/topless-beach-confusion/index.html

A woman in Ocean City, MD is insisting that she has the right to sunbathe topless on a public beach. The City Council there unanimously passed an emergency ordinance stating that whatever right she may have to be topless in private, she does not have the right to do so publicly in Ocean City.

This is not an example of an individual’s rights being violated, but rather the rights of the majority taking precedence over the rights of an individual. There are beaches where nudity is allowed, and Ms. Covington is welcome to go to one. I’m sure that if a family with children walked onto a nude beach and insisted that everyone else put clothes, Ms. Covington would be outraged – and rightfully so.

Women, as I have previously written, are subjects of desire. Men and women are physiologically different, and female breasts are sexually arousing. No one is suggesting that women must wear a burka. There are places however, where it is inappropriate to dress (or not dress) in a manner that is revealing or suggestive. Do you really want see men walking around in Speedo Banana Hammocks? Sure, there are some you might enjoy, but by and large you don’t want to see it.

The overall thesis here is that your rights and the rights of all individuals are necessarily limited by the rights of those around you, and you have the responsibility to ensure that the free exercise of your rights does not infringe upon the rights of others. Where you prove yourself incapable of doing this, governments intervene.