17-year-old Lizzy Martinez is at the center of the latest dress-code controversy, after she was told by school administrators to place Band-Aids over her nipples when she went braless last week.
According to reports, Martinez was pulled from her fifth period class and sent to the principal's office, where she was informed that her breasts were "distracting" the other students -- and that one boy in particular was laughing at her. After putting on a second shirt, Lizzy was made to jump around and show faculty members how much her breasts bounced.
"I was mortified," she told BuzzFeed News.
When putting on a second shirt was not deemed to be a satisfactory solution, Lizzy was sent to the nurse's office, and told to place four Band-Aids over her nipples.
Lizzy's mom, Kari Knop, has posted multiple updates via her Facebook page.
In her posts, she states that she believes the situation was poorly handled, noting that male students who may have breasts would never be asked to wear supportive devices or cover their nipples. [Plus, the school's dress code has nothing in it requiring girls to wear undergarments of any kind.]
Knop also shares her anger about the fact that her daughter was made to show administrators how her breasts moved. "I consider it to be highly inappropriate, they would never ask a male to stand up and 'move around' to visualize any male organs....." she wrote.
After tweeting about the incident, Lizzy was blocked from following her school's Twitter account. [yikes].
Mitchell Teitelbaum, the school district's general counsel, noted that the situation was mishandled in a statement. While the statement claims that corrective measures will be taken, not much was shared about what those measures are -- except that the dress-code will be amended to require female students to wear bras.
Thoughts?