I hope the tour guides and the admissions’ office warns each prospective female student of the new dress code regulations the administration implemented in a lunch announcement, last Friday.

I can imagine the surprised faces of these young girls, once excited about attending high school, now whacked with limiting dress expectations if they choose to attend this school. Would I want to go here if I was in their shoes?

One week prior, the female students invited to the annual Sadie’s dance received an email with a claim that if we wore a dress with slits, exposed cleavage, or a short hem we would be “embarrassing” the adult chaperones, and our peers.

Many of the girls became less excited for the dance and ashamed. Before being allowed to attend, a teacher had to look you up and down to determine whether the clothes you chose to wear were appropriate by the school’s standards.

It is wrong to slut shame anybody, especially 15 to 18 year old girls; this incident does not set the tone for how young women’s bodies should be seen, and interpreted at the Hill.

Furthermore, it’s interesting how an advertised “inclusive” community and “family” boarding school chooses to take away femininity from young girls who still are figuring out what they like to wear and what they want to look like.

Another promise of the Hill School is the preparation for life in prestigious colleges: Will girls know how to dress for the real world if they can’t even wear skirts in high school?

In specific circumstances, the skirts can be too short. But address, and if necessary, punish that student directly and individually instead of being lazy and punishing half the student body.

If the faculty decided to utilize the demerit system, and discipline on sight, the uproar over the “no skirts” rule wouldn’t exist.

Although this new regulation was deemed temporary, the message is still the same.

We are being told that our above-the-knee skirts are not okay, as if our Hill bubble had time traveled back to the 1950’s.

But if this is the true issue the administration is worried about: I don’t wear skirts to seek male attention.

I wear them because they are what make me feel comfortable and good about myself. What’s the harm in that?

As a female, I respect and love my body. I am not ashamed of what it looks like to myself or even to others’ controversial opinions. I want to express myself with what I have and admire, not with what I have to hide. If others’ don’t respect what my body looks like in a skirt, why should I be penalized for others’ disrespect?