When most high school seniors choose a yearbook quote, it's a chance to share selective wisdom from a historical figure or maybe their favorite celebrity or musician.
But for West Milford, New Jersey, teen Tori DiPaolo, it was a moment for her to call out her school's dress code.
Situated right below her senior portrait is the quote attributed to DiPaolo herself: “I’m sorry, did my shoulders distract you from reading this quote?"
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As DiPaolo told Yahoo Style, she became a "bit infamous" for fighting her district's dress code, which bars "halters, half-shirts, shorts, or sweaters and blouses that expose breasts or stomachs" and says that skirts and shorts should "not be a distraction."
DiPaolo said that despite being "an AP student, in academic clubs, and on the tennis team" she received numerous dress code violations during her four years in high school and spent hours in the principal's office because "40-year-old men were offended by [her] back showing." Though articles of clothing that are typically worn by boys are also included in the dress code—namely muscle shirts, mesh shirts, and loose-fitting tank tops—DiPaolo says that boys often wear such items and face no punishment. To her, there is one primary cause for this double standard: sexism.
“While my school, as well as most others, have dress codes that apply to boys and girls, it’s usually only girls that get dress code violations,” she explained to HuffPost. “My school’s dress code prohibits boys from wearing muscle shirts, but they do all the time and don’t get in trouble, yet when my bra strap accidentally slips, I have to miss class time to go change. I just think dress codes need to be enforced on both genders if you’re going to choose to have one. But really, people not being allowed to wear tank tops is ridiculous. No one is distracted by shoulders, and that’s really where I got the inspiration for my quote.”
For the most part, DiPaolo's sassy senior quote has received positive feedback, with many of her classmates sharing it on their own social media accounts and even some faculty members applauding her choice.
“One of my teachers actually came up to me to tell me she loved my quote and thought it was hilarious," DiPaolo told Yahoo Style. "Most teachers have laughed at it. The general consensus at my school—unless you’re the principal—is that the dress code is ridiculous, so people have loved the quote so far.”
