'Teach Boys To Focus, Not Girls To Cover Up': Teens' Protest Over 'Sexist' School Dress Code Goes Viral

A group of teenagers from the Natomas Charter School, a performing arts school in Sacramento, decided they've had enough with its rules, telling them how to look. So they staged a protest.

In an attempt to challenge the school's "sexist" dress-code, the students uncovered their midriffs.

One of the protesters, Evita, who is known on TikTok as @baggyjeanmom, also shared a video from the day she and some of her classmates made their point.

The recording shows girls and boys in tank tops with notes written across their bodies. "Distraction" was the main word, inked with a sharpie on several students' stomachs.

The students also hung signs calling out administrators for insinuating their bodies are a distraction.

"Teach boys to focus, not girls to cover up," one sign read, while another said: "If children's midriffs distract you, you should not be working with children."

At the end of the clip, Evita said the protest has led to the school having "a real talk to change the dress code," but she also added that some people got "kicked out" that day.

After her TikTok blew up, Evita made a follow-up video, explaining that the protest was timed with a school assembly on dress code, and that it was staged due to a number of students feeling that the current dress code "was sexist towards women and also perpetuating rape culture."

"We, as students, feel like what we wear is not distracting towards others and not affecting anyone's learning environment," she said.

One person said in the comments, "These little kids are gonna have a really hard time getting a job in the future if they can't understand the basics of dress code."

But the teenager claimed she's fully aware of the fact that neither she, nor her friends will be able to flaunt their stomachs once they graduate and enter into the professional world.

"We know we are going to have a dress code when we get older and possibly have uniforms with whatever job that comes, but right now we are in school, and we are in a learning environment," she said

"We should not have to be kicked out of class just because we are wearing a crop top... I shouldn't be the only one speaking on this topic and that's why we are having this meeting."

Evita said she talked to her favorite teacher about the protest and while he believes the students "could have had a better approach to it," he still stands by them. She said he "understands" them, and she agrees with him.

Joe Wood, the executive director of Natomas, told The Independent that the school's dress code "is intentionally gender neutral" and that "many of them had not read our dress code."