When Catherine Pearlman sent her daughter to school one morning, she wasn’t expecting her to come home with a dress code violation.
And when it happened two days in a row, she was less than impressed.
Her 13-year-old daughter was reprimanded for not wearing shorts that went down past her fingertips.
The New York City mum was incredibly infuriated with the development, writing an open letter to her daughter’s principal to go shopping with her.
In her first post, the mum clarified: “It’s impossible to find shorts that are remotely fashionable and below her fingertips. She's tall with long arms and fingers.”
But Catherine was incredibly structured and determined in her second post, which she shared on her site The Family Coach, thanking the principal for sending the notes home and also stated:
“I’d like to offer an additional thank you for forcing her to change into large mesh shorts that have been worn by only god knows who and potentially never washed.”
Adding: “To reward you for treating my daughter with such concern, I am cordially inviting you to take my daughter shopping.”
Wishing the principal the best of luck in their endeavours, Catherine also explained her daughter is 5’7” - tall for her age, with long arms - also including the provisions needed for a successful trip:
“She doesn’t like anything pink or purple or frilly. She won’t wear pants because she gets overheated easily. Trust me I’ve seen this. It will cause a scene in the schoolyard. She absolutely will not wear a dress either.”
Not content with the information provided, the social worker included:
“Now, don’t forget that you will have to find something in the stores that also meets with your dress code requirements.”
“So, if I were you, I’d focus on the shorts first. She has very long fingers which seem to make finding shorts that won’t get her sent to the principal’s office impossible.”
But not without pointedly stating, her 13-year-old is still growing, requesting the principal to NOT spend a fortune on the clothes.
Thanking the principal for taking on the chore, Mum has one last thing she needs to get off her chest before signing off, something which hit us like a tonne of bricks:
“I forgot to thank you for making it clear to my daughter that her body is somehow a distraction, either to herself or to the boys.”
“I thought she might have missed the message earlier in the year when the gym teacher told her she couldn’t wear yoga pants because the boys aren’t able to control themselves.”
Closing the infuriated mum stated: “I appreciate how hard you are working to drive the point home.”
While we understand the life of a principal is not an easy one, some of the points made by this mum are hard to argue with too, what are your thoughts on this?
