High School Student Says School Made Her Wear Duct Tape On Her Leg For 8 Hours For A 'Dress Code' Violation
A cruel and unusual punishment.
TikTok A high school student named Kylie called out school administrators when they punished her for a “dress code violation” in a painful way. She posted her complaint to TikTok and received thousands of likes, along with hundreds of supportive comments, highlighting how detrimental dress coding is to kids.
The high school student had to put duct tape on her legs for 8 hours after violating the dress code.
In 2020, Kylie filmed herself peeling duct tape from her leg. She claimed that the school made her wear it to cover up the rips in her jeans, which went against the dress code. “Ow,” she can be heard exclaiming as the tape comes off. Her skin appeared red and irritated where it had been taped up.
Photo: TikTok
“Yes, make kids wear duct tape on their legs for 8 hours,” she captioned her post. “Glad for online school.”
Her claim that she was grateful to not be physically in school shows that rigid dress coding hurts students, instead of helping them. That she and her classmates would be able to learn at home, dressed however they pleased, was clearly something Kylie appreciated.
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"Are our knees too distracting?" asked someone in the comments, calling out the absurdity of the dress code itself. Kylie explained in the comment section that “I wear the jeans ALL the time, and now it’s the first time I get dress coded,” proving just how arbitrary the rules are for what constitutes appropriate clothing at school.
One of Kylie’s followers made an argument against dress coding, stating, “Instead of teaching women to suppress themselves and cover-up, maybe they should teach men how to control themselves and have respect.”
“Preach!” Kylie responded.
The comment brings into focus the main issue around dress-coding students at schools— it’s less about what’s considered distracting for the learning environment and much more about exerting control over young women. A high number of comments were from other students explaining that they’d been put through a similar experience getting dress coded at their own schools. Many of them posted that they, too, had been forced to put duct tape on their skin as a way to cover up.
Female students in schools that adhere to a dress code are continuously reprimanded for having bodies and putting clothes on. Rigid dress code rules overwhelmingly target girls for how they look, which shifts unnecessary blame onto them. They’re punished merely for existing in a school setting.
Kylie stated that the duct tape caused her skin to have a reaction, and claimed she was going to use the TikTok post to show the school board how “insane” it was that she was made to wear duct tape under the holes in her jeans.
She didn’t follow up on whether or not she approached the school board with her complaint, yet it’s clear she would have found a lot of solidarity from other students who’d been made to follow the same rigid rules.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.