Christian school says 8-year-old girl "not welcome" because she dresses like a boy

[Slocumruls]

yeah to you and everyone else who has missed the point, nobody is making a legal argument that they do not have the legal right to do this.

 

it's more of a moral debate about whether they're dicks for doing it.

They have a legal right to be jerks. There isn't even much of a moral argument against the school. Even most restaurants have a dress code and in most cases at the high end the rules do not apply equally to men and women (Men are required to wear collared shirts, "not sneakers or sandals", but a woman wearing the same exact articles of clothing would be denied access because the dress code has different requirements for women including that they are allowed to wear sandals/open shoes in most cases).

I see no real reason why any private institution should not be allowed to deny access to people they do not wish to serve when the service is not government funded or government required.

What would you say if the school denied entrance for the child of a practicing Satanist due to the Parent's religious affiliation? Again, I doubt many people would object to blocking the Satanists from going to a Christian School but it's exactly the same kind of selective admittance.

[jjjon123]

They have a legal right to be jerks. There isn't even much of a moral argument against the school. Even most restaurants have a dress code and in most cases at the high end the rules do not apply equally to men and women (Men are required to wear collared shirts, "not sneakers or sandals", but a woman wearing the same exact articles of clothing would be denied access because the dress code has different requirements for women including that they are allowed to wear sandals/open shoes in most cases).

I see no real reason why any private institution should not be allowed to deny access to people they do not wish to serve when the service is not government funded or government required.

What would you say if the school denied entrance for the child of a practicing Satanist due to the Parent's religious affiliation? Again, I doubt many people would object to blocking the Satanists from going to a Christian School but it's exactly the same kind of selective admittance.

You bring up a good point, if this is an issue with dress code or standards where this school already has specific guidelines that need to be met then I have absolutely no problem with what they are doing. This wouldn't make news if someone was kicked out of a prestigious catholic/Christian school for not following their gender's dress code.

 

But if she isn't breaking any school ordinances and the leaders just think she is being too "boyish" than they are being ridiculous.

[F CHARLIE]

Jjjon is correct. Not that long ago this would be considered Tomboy behavior in any Christian school, ( I grew up in one in a agriculture community) and no one would care. There is a change in christian culture recently that has pushed them to extreme positions. There are a number of reasons for this but yes, it is extreme.

[t0night]

I think the school is wrong to force an individual to dress according to their expectation of a gender that the child was assigned at birth and with which they may not be at all comfortable.

 

edit: also @jon, I was thinking earlier that there's definitely a Biblical prohibition against women wearing men's clothing and vice versa.

 

(Deuteronomy 22:5) " a woman shall not put on the apparel of a man, nor shall a man wear the clothing of a woman" and here it is, but!

 

according to a person on Yahoo answers (hella reliable scholarship right here but it's believable)

 

apparently this passage "uses a very specific word for 'man' - the word "geber" which directly translates as 'warrior' or 'soldier' (Aramaic had several words for 'man' each intended to convey a slightly different kind of man), and the 'apparel of a man' is (in direct translation from the original text) the armour and weapons [of a warrior]'.
This verse was originally intended to prevent women from taking up arms and fighting, as the pagans did; and likewise, to prevent the men of Israel from disguising themselves as women in order to avoid fighting."

 

which is interesting. what should the school be doing as Christians, and what is their justification for doing so, in terms of a girl dressing in a manner which is expected of boys?