CAPA students walked out to protest the school’s dress code enforcement

More than 75 students walked out of the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts on Monday, protesting dress code enforcement last week that they said had objectified girls.

The students, who left the school at 2 p.m., marched more than a mile up Broad Street to school district headquarters, holding posters and chanting, “Our bodies are not a buffet” — a reference to what they said an administrator told students who were sequestered in a room Thursday for dress code violations.

“They used inappropriate language, like we were a buffet for men when we were out on the front lawn, and that we were just an example of sexual assault cases that could happen because we were dressed promiscuously,” said senior Levy Vermea, 18, who was among several dozen students in the room.

» READ MORE: CAPA flagged dozens of female students for dress code violations, sparking outrage about policing girls’ bodies

Students got word that the school would be cracking down on the policy the day before, some said, after an announcement was made over school loudspeakers.

As a result, some decided to test its enforcement. While some boys came in wearing crop tops, students said girls were disproportionately pulled out of the metal detector line and into a room for code violators. Students said Black girls in particular appeared to be targeted.

“It felt very oppressive to female bodies,” said Zephyr Brick, a 14-year-old freshman. “People are exploring what looks good on their body, what they feel comfortable in, how they want to express themselves.”

Brick estimated that “80% of the school” is violating the dress code, which requires shorts to be mid-thigh and prohibits halter tops and cropped shirts, among other styles.

But CAPA students sometimes walk the hallways in leotards - the school has a dance major, and students wear dance gear as part of their district-approved curriculum.

Paige Joki, an Education Law Center-Pennsylvania lawyer, said the dress code may be violating CAPA students’ rights.

Joki, who does not represent the students but who reviewed the dress code, said there are concerns with dress and grooming rules that are “vague and subjective, that may not pass muster if you were to face a legal challenge, as well as concerns about ways that was written.”

While Brick, the CAPA ninth grader, understands the need for some dress code, “to limit how we express ourselves ... especially in an art school, is so absurd.”

Nina Satlow, another 14-year-old freshman, said that when they toured CAPA last year, “this isn’t the school we saw.”

“What we saw was a school where people walked around freely expressing themselves,” Satlow said, describing the current atmosphere as “a very intense shift.”

With posters reading “I’m comfortable with my body, but my school isn’t,” “I am not a distraction,” and “Fire Fulton” — CAPA’s principal is Alonzo Fulton — the students marched north, pausing at City Hall before continuing to district headquarters on North Broad Street.

There, a small group walked up the steps and met with Tomás Hanna, an associate superintendent, who spoke with them for about 20 minutes.

Satlow, who was among them, said Hanna indicated that district officials wanted to work with students.