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steveincowtown wrote:For all those that agree with the school implementing this rule, I would submit that you are unintentionally yielding to the idea the children are the collective responsibility of government and society and that they do not belong to their parents.

Parents need to be making these decisions, not schools.

This was my original point, you just said it better than I could.

I understand what you say and I homeschool my children too. You are fine with reasonable dress codes based on common sense....how is straps and mid thigh skirt length not common sense? They are not picking out colors or themes or fabric or styles...there are thousands of styles within that framework. How is that not common sense?

To answer your question as to why a full length dress no shoulder strap is not a good idea is simply this.....a dress with straps is less likely to be pulled down if someone steps on it and is less likely to fall in the case of vigorous dancing (which is the norm at proms). It is a minimum standard to protect the girl and others present from embarrassment. Prom is not really about learning....it is a celebration. If we want to stick to learning then prom should not happen.[/quote]

Your explaination of the needed strap is rational, but the article I read on Yahoo (yea I know, its Yahoo), said the explaination was and I don't have the exact quote, but something to the effect, to keep from being a distraction to the boys. What?? This is what I'm talking about. Foolish people making foolish rules. Case in point: One of the many reasons we pulled my son from public school was they "tried to" suspend him for TWO days because he missed a belt loop with his belt on his pants. REALLY??? The only reason he was not suspended was because we asked them to show us where it (dress code) specifically said suspention for a missing belt loop and they couldn't.

Mamabear, our two oldest kids we pulled out of public education after middle school and home-schooled for their high school years because of their "rules". Both are now successful adults with families of their own. Our "late in life" child is in the 3rd grade in public school right now, but we now live in a different ISD than the older ones went to. Its like night and day. Anyway, my point was and I stated, I'm not saying there should be NO rules or dress codes, I'm saying some of them are petty and have no effect on my or anyone else's children learning what they need to learn. Please tell me how a girl with a full lenghth dress that has no shoulder straps at a prom going to affect any child learning what they need to learn. I respect your opinion, but just because mines different, my child should not go to the same school as yours? Like I said before, IMO there should be BASIC rules of the dress code based on common sense (I know thats hard to find these days) and after that, its the parents responcibilty to decide what clothes appropriate for their child to wear or not and let them know why certain things are not appropriate. A child learns more from their parents than from some stranger we call their teacher.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with most post above. I do not believe in the government (in this case, a smaller form of government, ie. ISD) telling me what I can and cannot wear. IMO this is the PARENTS job. While I do agree that I wouldn't want my 12 or 13 year old daughter wearing a "sexy-revealling" dress, thats my decision not theirs. Now there has to be some common sense used here. You can't show up in your underware or something like that, but we are talking about the same style of dresses, one with shoulder straps and one without. This sounds like a petty issue to me. Again, I'm not saying there should be NO rules or dress codes, but some are getting a little rediculious. Just my 2 cents.