Students Bent Out of Shape Over Yoga Pants Ban

A high school in Cape Cod isn't the first to ban yoga pants, which tend to be barred over their form-fitting nature being seen as a "distraction" for male students, but this time it's ostensibly for a different reason—at least according to the school district's superintendent. "Vocational technical education is about preparing people for a career," he says. "It has to do with employability. We're passing on the skills that are needed in the workforce, to know that's not proper attire when you're at work." And thus Cape Cod Technical High School's dress code now reads: "Leggings, tights, yoga pants, and any other extremely form fitting apparel are considered an accessory and must be worn with dress/skirt or shorts," reports the Huffington Post Canada.

Not everyone is happy, and 16-year-old Emily Connolly organized a protest involving wearing yoga pants to the first day of school this week, ABC News reports. The senior class president tells CBS she sees both sides: "I think we need to dress appropriately at school, not show anything that is inappropriate, but at the same time we need to be standing up for our rights in what we can wear." Another student points out, "Yoga pants are really comfortable," while a male student says, "I don’t think it’s fair that we can take something away from the girls just because it’s either distracting the guys or it's non-professional." But one female student expressed relief. "Being a girl I also feel uncomfortable with it, seeing a girl showing things. I’m like they shouldn’t be dressing like that!" (One legislator tried to make yoga pants illegal in Montana.)