Stanton College Preparatory School administrators apologized this week after students protested fliers they saw as demeaning women. Students raised awareness of the fliers online using the Twitter hashtag, #SCPGoodGirl.
High School Junior Savanah Sturm said wording used on fliers didn’t go over well with the students at the college-prep school.
“Everybody was really angry because they thought it was really patronizing and demeaning to refer to us as good girls for dressing how they wanted us to,” she said.
The fliers had pictures of girls in different dress styles to help explain the school’s prom dress code.
The first picture was a sleeveless, floor-length gown. It was captioned, “Going to prom? Yes you are. Good girl.”
Three other dresses were also pictured: one with a low-slung back, one with a low-cut front and one with a high-slit up the thigh. All the dresses were labeled “Going to Stanton Prom? No you’re not.”
Sturm said the protest was organized by the student body president, who tweeted Monday for students to wear the colors purple and white to stand in solidarity with the #SCPGoodGirl movement. She said the majority of students participated, and some even drew the female symbol on their shirts.
Tuesday morning, school administration took down the fliers and the principal apologized over the school’s loud-speaker. Sturm said many students are still unhappy with the outcome.
“There were some people who were upset about it because they know that is wasn’t the principal who, like this wasn’t her doing, and the fact that she was the only one who apologized was kind of why some people are still not OK with the apology,” she said.
The Duval County School Board also issued a written apology for the fliers, saying they were not an appropriate or acceptable method for reminding students of the dress code.
Stanton officials said no student will be turned away from prom for wearing a dress similar to any of the ones depicted in the fliers.
Contact Amy Hadden at newsteam@wjct.org or on Twitter at @AmyNHadden.
