We’ve heard about students speaking out against the dress code before and getting the support and attention that they deserve, which is amazing. But what happened to this girl is even more ridiculous than usual. When a student body president, junior marshall, and fellowship recipient gets busted for wearing a skirt she wore for a Teacher Cadet lesson — something that any normal person would deem totally professional — she took to social media.
On her Instagram, she very articulately expressed the problem with her school’s authority figures and leadership.
Meet Carey Burgess, a student at Beaufort High School in South Carolina.
She was sent home for wearing this completely reasonable outfit:
“So maybe I am in the wrong…”
“Maybe our society isn’t yet advanced enough to handle three inches of my thigh. This is a patriarchal society, and I am a woman. I have to be kept in my place, or I may do something that is so rarely seen in Beaufort High School — learn. You saved me, Beaufort High. As Student Body President, junior marshal, and a recipient of the Palmetto Fellowship, I was heading down the path of hard drugs (good thing you’re testing next year!), strip clubs, and sugar daddies.
I don’t know where I would be without your misogynistic views. How could I go on without a certain teacher making sexist jokes all class? How could I survive without my science professor letting me know that I am an inferior woman? Yes, I am a woman. I am woman with thighs, a butt, and a brain. I am bigger than Beaufort High School. All of us are. Maybe instead of worrying about my skirt, Beaufort High should take notice of its incompetent employees, and sexist leaders.”
Carey has received so much support since posting this message.
After a conversation with her principal, she’s glad that she has been able to bring light to this very real, very important problem.
Hopefully, the whole ordeal will be a stepping stone on the path to getting rid of misogynistic teachers at this school and beyond.
(via BuzzFeed)
Carey’s message is very clear, and she conveyed it with just the right combination of anger and poise. We can only hope that students like Carey continue to speak out against injustice. That’s the only way to inspire change.
