Catholic school blames girls’ ‘provocative’ outfits for sexual harassment
‘Instead of publicly shaming girls for dressing how they want, teach men not to over sexualize women’s bodies,’ the girls said
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Your support makes all the difference.Schoolgirls have organised a protest after it was suggested by an administrator that if they dress provocatively, they are to blame for being sexually harassed.;
A campus life administrator warned students at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Michigan, during a presentation on dealing with sexual harassment and rape: “If you dress provocatively and leave absolutely nothing to the imagination, younger girls look and go, “oh my gosh, she’s got plenty of boys around her,” a student’s recording obtained by WXYZ reveals.
The administrator said that such clothing was “contributing to the boy’s and men’s bad behaviour and that all the blame is on them,” adding: “Those younger guys go, oh, that’s how you talk about women, that’s how you look at women as an object, something to be dissected.”
On Tuesday, about 40 of them went on protest and wore paper targets on their uniforms for being “targeted”. The girls also put up posters around the school that said “instead of publicly shaming girls for dressing how they want, teach men not to over sexualize women’s bodies.”
Officials from the school, one parent told WXYZ, then told the girls to either take the arrows off or face detention.
An official statement from the school denies the parent’s account, saying: “School administration has no record of students being suspended, issued detentions or otherwise disciplined as a result of this situation.”
The statement described the school’s training as “covering students’ rights, responsibilities and situations they may face while participating in Christian service opportunities.”
This event is not the first controversy the school has been involved in: Last year, the school was criticised for handing out “modesty ponchos” at prom to cover girls who wore dresses the school considered to be too revealing.
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