The relatively small town of Devils Lake, ND has been recently put into the spotlight over quite the controversial issue, especially in the rural and sporadically populated state. A new policy in Devil’s Lake School District specifically targets the female demographic in schools, singling them out as the group most likely to violate this new policy.

Specifically, the policy states that girls of a certain age–that is, prepubescent to blossoming young women–are not permitted to wear leggings, yoga pants, “jeggings,” or skinny jeans because they are a distracting element in the classroom and not conducive to a productive learning environment.

If it is not already apparent to you the reasoning behind this new dogma, I will be so kind as to illustrate. The administrators of the school have a growing concern that when female students wear clothing such as leggings or yoga pants, they are not only a distraction to the male students in the classroom, but they are also a distraction to the male teachers employed by the school.

Therefore, as a solution to this problem, the Devils Lake School District has professed that girls can no longer wear these types of clothing to school.

“They are meant to show the girls that they way they dress impacts how others view them. A lesson that will please their future husbands, clergymen, and in-laws, but will not further their own happiness and self-worth.”

Because, obviously, it should fall completely on the girls to stop boys from having impure thoughts about them in the classroom, after they decide to wear their most seductive pair of yoga pants to class, specifically with the intent to distract their peers and supervisors.

Of course, the male teachers cannot be blamed when their teenage students, displaying all that God gave them in a skin-tight pair of leggings, leave the room to use the restroom and coincidentally disrupt the teacher’s train of thought with their luscious, under-age behinds.

If you felt the least bit of discomfort at any of those scenarios, then you are most definitely a sane individual. It is truly disgusting that the administrators feel the need to punish girls for something they have no control over, i.e. curbing their male counterparts’ sexual appetites.

It is more disturbing that they would put such a policy in place in part due to the distraction of male faculty. It can be guaranteed that these girls do not wear leggings, yoga pants, or jeggings because they intend to flaunt their sexuality in the classroom, and they certainly should not have to worry about the misplaced interest of their teachers, whom they trust, just because they decided to be comfortable that day.

By singling out these girls, Devils Lake School District is encouraging the rape culture, teaching their male students to objectify their peers, and disrespecting them by taking away any control they might be able to cultivate from the situation.

As for the male teachers, if they are so distracted by their underage students coming to school in (again I emphasize) athletic wear; perhaps they should not be teaching young and impressionable people.

Unfortunately, this whole situation gets worse. The Assistant Principal of the Devils Lake High School made matters worse when, to bolster understanding and acceptance of this new dress code, he called an assembly for the female students of the school and showed them clips from the film Pretty Woman.

If you are familiar with the film, then you know that it is an offbeat romantic comedy about a prostitute who falls in love with one of her clients and, defying the expectations and approval of society, finds a happily-ever-after ending with the man she loves.

During the assembly, the students were shown two clips from the movie. The first one shown is the part of the film when Julia Roberts tries to purchase new clothes at a high-end retail shop and is denied service because she is obviously dressed like a hooker (since she is supposed to play one).

The second clip is, when she has been shopping elsewhere and, looking appropriate, once again goes into the shop that denied her service and tells them what a mistake they made.

They are meant to show the girls that the way they dress impacts how others view them. A lesson that will please their future husbands, clergymen, and in-laws, but will not further their own happiness and self-worth.

Of course the Assistant Principal would not show clips from later in the movie, when Julia Roberts is almost assaulted by a rich businessman, and still thought of as trash even though she now looks respectable on the outside.

“These girls are being victimized by their administrators, their faculty, and even their peers. To the Devils Lake School District: very poorly done.”

Just the fact that these girls were targeted for this policy, gathered together to be shown a film about a prostitute, and made to think that their appearance is the deciding factor of whether or not their lives will be successful is appalling in itself. But did the Assistant Principal even know what Pretty Woman is about?

If he had actually watched it, surely he would know that it undermines the very lesson he and the rest of the school district are trying to teach these girls, and instead sending the message that appearance and circumstance do not have any say in the quality of your character or in your eventual success in life. Even the title of the film is a play on this concept.

And let’s not forget that these girls are not prostitutes, not matter that a faculty member compared them to hookers when talking about the way they dress.

These girls are being victimized by their administrators, their faculty, and even their peers. All of these people are failing their students and themselves by encouraging this way of thinking. To the Devils Lake School District: very poorly done.

-Ashley Nickel