Dear administrators of my kids school ...

Today was the hottest day of the year so far. But for some reason my 8-year-old daughter had to wear her jacket all day long. Why? Because on this dress down day she wore a dress whose straps were too thin. Actually she was also wearing a tank top under that dress for "modesty", she was also wearing bike shorts underneath. Spaghetti straps are out of dress code. Really we are talking about an 8-year-old.

Are the spaghetti straps so distracting to a room full of 3rd graders? No. If she was dressed like a fidget spinner, the boys wouldn't be able to take their eyes off her, but rest assured she is not causing a distraction. It is utter nonsense. Guess what if what a little child is wearing is so distracting to the boys in her class well that is a problem with the way they were raised. And it's a problem that school's feel the need to legislate what kids can wear, well mostly legislate what girls are allowed to wear, there are pretty much no regulations for what a boy is not allowed to wear to school that doesn't apply to girls.

You have never met as nice and sweet little girl as my daughter. She  shares her snacks at lunch time to a fault. But she gets singled out because a puritanical rule that was written to prevent 13-year-old 8th graders from "distracting" their male classmates.

It's funny when people complain about the bullying problem at the school, it takes weeks and weeks for it to be addressed. When an entire class of kindergartens are not allowed to run around at recess it takes dozens of letters to the principal and teacher, and a near civil war amongst the parents in the class for anything to be done about it. But the seductiveness of a child must be stopped immediately.

The school is a Catholic school, so there are rules I get that. But this rule is terrible and the enforcement is terrible. It would have been cruel to make a child walk around in his socks because he was wearing purple sneakers instead of white or black ones. It was cruel to subject my daughter to this enforcement, a note home from the teacher would have sufficed.

My daughter is prone to overheating and had she passed out because she was forced to wear a jacket in school all day. My guess would be an attorney would be writing something about this incident not me.