As students were arriving to A.B. Lucas Secondary from Tenant Avenue, a male student wearing a black tank top and board shorts chanted “Fight the Lucas Dress Code! My Body, My business!” to people walking, driving, and busing into campus. The protest was just a small fraction of the attention surrounding the dress code at the London, Ontario high school, after senior student Laura Anderson was sent home for wearing a tank top and jeans.
“I think there should be rules about it, but I think what Laura was wearing the other day was a little over the top,” said student Aidan Peters, “She was wearing a bandeau, it was covering her bra and everything so I think it covered everything that was in the dress code.”
Most students, like Peters, were supportive of Anderson, and feels there needs to be a change in the dress code. “It wasn’t like tight, really short shorts or like a cami tank top,” Nic0le Struthers said of the outfit, “I thought it was appropriate and it would be something that I would wear to school.”
Gabrielle Williams also thinks there should be regulations, but thinks there should be some change. “It’s really hot, and even if you go to a store in the mall, or anywhere else where we buy our clothes, most of the things are out of the dress code so it’s kind of unfair.”
“I think we should be allowed to wear tank tops and show our backs and our shoulders, because it’s not like, distracting that much,” said Meghan Hodgson.
However, one student Jager Brown thought the attention surrounding the dress code was strange. “There are more important issues than the dress code that they should be focusing on, like the fact you can’t really swear during school.”
A petition for a change in Lucas’ dress code has over 3,000 signatures.
