FREDERICTON, N.B. – A group of Fredericton students protesting against their high school’s dress code have been suspended.
Sorcha Beirne, 17, says she and others involved in last Friday’s walk out were told they are being suspended for entering the school when they were told not to by the principal.
The group of Fredericton High students, called Fredericton Youth Feminists, say the dress code singles out female students and encourages the idea that sexual assault can be blamed on women.
They were protesting this issue outside their school during school hours last Friday.
READ MORE: Fredericton High students protest school’s dress code
Beirne told Global News they were locked out of the school during the protest and told not to enter.
But at the end of the school day, when the doors were opened to allow the other student to leave, the group entered the school and went to the office to express their concerns over how the protest was handled.
“We are very disappointed because it is a very clear message that the school is not willing to listen to students who stand up or voice their opinion,” she said. “It’s an attempt to silence students which I think is inappropriate.”
Students are suspended from school for three days and banned from extra-curricular activities for the remainder of the school year.
The superintendent of the school district, David McTimoney, said in an email it would be inappropriate for him to comment on a school’s handling of individual students.
Group met with school district
McTimoney, and the school’s principal, Shane Thomas, did meet with the group Monday.
“We had an hour and a half long meeting where they listened to our concerns and planned to meet again,” Beirne said. “We thought it had gone really smoothly so we were very surprised to hear about consequences as they were not mentioned at the meeting.”
The 17-year-old said there was no mention at that time that the school was going to take disciplinary action against the students.
“Hopefully we can meet with the superintendent again to express how inappropriate we think this punishment is.”
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