Madison Veenstra isn’t the kind of girl who typically feels self-conscious about her body – but even she admits to feeling a bit of embarrassment during an end-of-year school trip to a water park,
“It was kind of uncomfortable,” she says.
“All the other girls were kind of looking at us like ‘Why are you wearing T-shirts?’”
Along with the rest of her Grade 7 class at Elmira’s Park Manor Public School, Veenstra was at Bingemans for a day of fun in the sun.
In a letter sent out before the trip, parents were told that their children would have to follow the Park Manor dress code “as much as is reasonably possible.”
One-piece swimsuits were OK, but any girl wearing a two-piece bathing suit would have to sport a tank top overtop.
Veenstra’s class wasn’t the only one at Bingemans that day, but she says it was the only one told to cover up two-piece bathing suits.
“You’re supposed to be proud of your body, not have to cover it up with a T-shirt,” she says.
Her mother says she’s proud of the 13-year-old for speaking her mind, and that it’s “ridiculous” only one class was held to a different standard.
“I think it should be a personal choice. It shouldn’t be dictated,” she says.
In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for the Waterloo Region District School Board said the school will take a look at its dress code policy later this year.
