School Cop Tries to Arrest Teenage Girl for Violating the Dress Code
"You either come with me to the control room to change your shirt or we will arrest you."
Summer, a high school senior in Harrisburg, North Carolina, was suspended for 10 days and barred from attending her graduation ceremony because her shirt revealed a little too much shoulder.
What's more, the school resource officer actually threatened to arrest the girl, she told a local news station.
The officer "was within five feet of me, he had his hand on his gun," Summer told NBC-Charlotte. At that point, Summer reports, the principal said, "I'm gonna give you an ultimatum. We have tried to call your mother. You either come with me to the control room to change your shirt or we will arrest you."
Hickory Ridge High School described Summer's actions as "insubordination," even though she complied with the initial demand to cover up by borrowing a friend's jacket.
Glamour describes the incident as example of dress-code sexism in schools, where girls are often expected to make unreasonable wardrobe alterations because administrators worry that bare arms and tight leggings will distract the boys. But the most worrisome aspect of Summer's story has to the police involvement. Is this what cops in schools are for? Threatening teenagers who were insufficiently deferential to an administrator's overbearing puritanism?
