School Dress Codes Are Disproportionately Enforced Against Black Girls, Samantha O’Sullivan Writes
That it is our responsibility to ensure our exposed shoulders sweating in 80-degree Washington DC swamp heat are not “distracting” to our male classmates, as not to impede their learning. In schools across DC and around the country, girls — and especially Black girls like me — have their learning impeded upon every day by being taken out of class, sent to the front office, and even sent home from school. It’s the reason I’ve spent the last few months working with the National Women’s Law Center and 19 other Black girls to write a report called Dress Coded: Black Girls, Bodies, and Bias in D.C. Schools.