School Suspends Eighth Grader For Standing Up Against Teacher Who 'Sexualized 14-Year-Olds'

An eighth-grader was suspended from a school in Florida earlier this week after she stood up against the institution’s policy on dress code and a teacher’s alleged comments about her body.

The 14-year-old girl and her mother called the incident part of a “systemic problem," adding that there’s a double standard for enforcing the dress code. The incident happened at Yulee Middle School in Yulee, Florida.

The young girl, Alice Wagner, told news station News4Jax that she was wearing a full-length tank top with a cardigan when a teacher singled her out for wearing a “too revealing” outfit. Wagner said she was told that her undergarments were visible with the tank top, but she argued the cardigan she was wearing gave more than required coverage.

“(The teacher) told me I was ‘letting them hang out for the whole world to see,’ as I was exiting the classroom… I went to the bathroom and I came back and I said, ‘You need to stop sexualizing 14-year-old girls.’ I grabbed my stuff and I removed myself from the situation,” Wagner said.

After her unpleasant verbal exchange with the teacher, the girl said she visited the school office to call her parents but wasn’t allowed to use the phone. Soon the whole situation flared up, and she ended up getting a 10-day suspension.

While acknowledging that her daughter’s outburst was “too much,” mom Sarah Wagner said: “... I understand why she was angry. She was basically sexually harassed by her teacher.”

The girl’s mother added that the teacher eventually apologized as she “did understand what she did was wrong.” The girl said she believes “teachers are targeting women with mature bodies, women in general absolutely.”

“So just because I have a little bit of breasts, I get targeted,” she added. The district declined to comment on the matter, Daily News reported.

Currently, school districts across Northeast Florida are grappling with dress code policies. Parents often express concern over these policies highlighting the difference in the rules for boys versus those for girls. An online petition was created in March after Bartram Trail High School students in Florida complained about the dress code. At that time, 31 female students received dress code violations. They said they were taken out of class and forced to change clothes.