‘How you gonna dress code someone who can’t wear pants’: Student with leg brace slams school

Dress codes in public schools are a source of controversy yet again as a girl in a leg brace was allegedly asked to change out of her shorts. She was told that she had violated the dress code despite having a leg brace coming right up to her thigh. The video was posted by the girl who went by @kyles._.w on TikTok and it showed her panning from top to bottom and she can be seen in a leg brace that comes up to her thigh, reported DailyDot. She is an athlete and has been asked to wear a brace after tearing her meniscus “around the same time last year.” She was wearing athletic shorts that reached down to her brace but she was still asked to change her dress for violating the dress code. The video has been viewed 52k times and garnered more than 10.2k likes.

She wore an exasperated expression as she showed her leg brace. The on-screen text read: “How are u gonna dress code someone who can’t even wear pants.” She added that she was asked to leave the class and change. “Missing almost my entire class for this BS,” she wrote on-screen. In the comments beneath the video, she wrote, “six inches above the knee is the only acceptable length for shorts.” It didn't matter that she was in a leg-brace. She said she couldn't wear leggings as they caused her brace to slide, forcing her to constantly readjust it “to even walk.” She finally wore her Dad's basketball shorts, which stop slightly above the knee and covered some of the brace and it was 'acceptable' to the school. “I guess imma dress like a guy, now haven’t got dress-coded,” read the message onscreen.

A few suggested she wear sweats, but she said it was too hot to wear them and added that it made it difficult with the brace on. An overwhelming majority pointed out that the dress code should accommodate for instances such as injuries and leg brace as was her case. One person commented, "Like I can't put pants on. What do you want from me?" Another half-joked, "Gonna need to invest in pants that are pants on one leg and shorts on the other." It appeared to be a pattern as many people who suffered injuries shared similar stories of being forced to wear leggings, baggy jeans, or men’s sweatpants or pajama pants. One TikToker wrote, "When I tore my ACL they made me put my brace OVER my pants." Another user pointed to an old incident from her school. "Happened at my school. The girl got dress coded for one of these and she literally came back with a towel tied around her leg." Many called out the school for not accommodating her situation. They just "keep giving me more and more reasons to just home school my kids when I have them someday because I'd got to jail fighting school. 

Dress codes are often criticized for mainly targeting women. As we reported earlier, an incident at the Ford Middle School in Tacoma saw a 12-year-old girl being sent home for wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants. The girl's mother stood up for her daughter and argued with the school principal and the 12-year-old was asked to leave the class. The video shows her daughter wearing a grey t-shirt and what appeared to be yoga pants for a brief moment in the video. "But she's still going to go class" her Mom asks the principal. “Not right now,” the principal replies. “So you’re taking her education away over her dress code?” the girl's mother asked indignantly.