Principal Kendall Topham of a Utah public high school apologized to dozens of teens who were turned away from their homecoming dance because they wore dresses deemed too short, prompting parents and students to call it a “homecoming spirit massacre.”
Topham held four assemblies Monday, telling students that the school’s dress code policy was too vague to enforce properly and vowing to hold a free dance to make up for Saturday’s dress debacle.
As many as half of those who arrived at the dance ended up not going in after their dates and friends were barred from entering. Among those turned away was Homecoming Queen Erica Alvey.
Alvey told the Deseret News, “They told me that it was showing my knees so it was too short, and in order to get into the dance I had to put on leggings.”
She added, “So I did, and I got back in the dance, but that was before I realized that this thing was going to turn into such a big issue.”
After the dance, students and parents took to Facebook to protest, posting examples of sparkly dresses an inch or two above the knee that school officials claimed broke the rules.
Some parents, including Michael Johnson, went to the school Saturday night after their children called to say they couldn’t attend.
Johnson told The Salt Lake Tribune that he doesn’t have a problem with the school imposing a dress policy, but he said it was too vague.
His daughter wore a black dress with ruffles ending about an inch above her knee. The family paid to get the dress lengthened before the dance to ensure it would meet the school’s requirements.
Several students wore their homecoming dresses to class Monday to protest the dress code. They also signed a petition to change the dress code to be more specific with input from the student body.
Meanwhile, Topham apologized to students Monday, stating, “As much as we want to have a certain level of appropriateness and reasonableness, there was never any intention for people to leave heartbroken and disgruntled and confused and frustrated. So that apology needed to happen and it did happen.”
Content contributed and edited by staff member, reported from Tooele, Utah, USA, sourced by Deseret News
