Children Wear 'Real Men Aren't Distracted by Shoulders' Shirts to School After 9-year-old Girl Told to Cover up Tank Top

The medium was the message at one intermediate school in Nassau County, Florida, this week, when boys and girls wore protest shirts to class after a 9-year-peer was told to cover up her shoulders because they were "distracting to the boys."

"They had her wear a hoodie to cover up," Kate Darrow, the mother of the 9-year-old student, told Action News Jax in an interview on Monday.

"Right there, I knew that that was an issue...It's 2019 and that's not something I want my daughter to be taught," she said.

Rather than calling the Callahan Intermediate School to complain about the incident, however, Darrow's family decided to design some shirts of their own that would send a clear message to the school, with the help of other students.

On Monday, Darrow's daughter showed up to school wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "right to bear arms," while at least one other student wore a shirt saying "real men aren't distracted by shoulders."

Photos show the Nassau County mother's older son and a friend appearing to also don the "real men aren't distracted by shoulders" shirts in solidarity with the 9-year-old.

Darrow said she hoped the protest would encourage the school to "start thinking" about what kind of message they are sending to students when they tell young girls to cover up.

"I think we're sending the wrong messages," Darrow's husband, Rob, told Action News Jax. "These are archaic rules. There's tradition that passed them on."

The Callahan Intermediate School did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek.

The school's dress code can be seen in its 2019-2020 Student Handbook, which is published online, however.

In its dress code, the Callahan Intermediate School asserts that all students must "wear full cover shirts or blouses."

"Shirts must cover midriff area and may not have spaghetti or thin straps less than two inches," the school policy states, adding that students may not wear "racer-back cut tank tops or see-through clothing."

In addition to its rules on tank tops, students are also barred from wearing "short or extremely tight shorts or skirts."

They also cannot wear pants with "holes, rips or tears above the knee" or "T-shirts displaying profanity or inappropriate material."

It is unclear whether Darrow's family's protest shirts would fall under the latter category.

The school adds that parents will be contacted to bring their child "proper clothing" if a student's clothing is deemed not acceptable.

While the Callahan Intermediate School's student handbook refers readers to the Nassau County Code for a "more extensive explanation of the dress code," the Nassau County School District's code of conduct states that it is ultimately up to individual schools to "decide what is proper clothing for students to wear."

However, the code does suggest that students' tops "must have backs, cover the stomach and not have thin straps" and asserts that clothing "should not be too tight or too short."

It also states that students should not "distract others by [their] clothing or grooming."

In recent years, there has been a growing pushback against school policies that appear to shame students, particularly female ones, about their bodies.

A recent report from The Wall Street Journal shone a light on how school districts across the country have been adopting more lenient dress code policies to do away with sexist restrictions that disproportionately target female students.

According to the Journal, at least 16 school districts now follow a school dress code model created by the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which seeks to eliminate discrimination.

While the model asserts that children "must wear" shirts, bottoms and shoes, rather than imposing strict rules on what clothing should look like, the guide suggests that students be allowed to "wear clothing of their choice that is comfortable."

"Student dress codes should support equitable educational access and should not reinforce gender stereotypes," a description on NOW Oregon's website states.

It adds that school dress codes should not perpetuate or further "marginalization or oppression of any group based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, household income, gender identity or cultural observance."