Buhach Colony social experiment results in 80 detentions

A social experiment for a class at Buhach Colony High School led to hundreds of kids breaking the dress code and roughly 80 students being detained.

The students showed up to the Atwater school last Friday wearing shorts, tank tops and other attire that violated the dress code policy. Some of the boys wore short shorts while others were “sagging” their pants.

The goal of the project, which began in a women’s society class, was to test whether school administrators would punish the girls more often than the boys. Several students told the Merced Sun-Star that the social experiment proved their point – girls are punished more often.

“The number of boys getting in trouble was far less than the amount of girls,” said Aspen Young, 16. “The goal of the project was to see if boys are treated less harshly with the dress code. I saw only fewer numbers of boys getting in trouble.”

The experiment quickly grew into a social media movement after students posted pictures and messages to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. The project even spread to two other high schools: Merced and Golden Valley.

One of the students sent to detention for participating in the Buhach Colony experiment was 15-year-old Sarah Paulson. The freshman from Winton said she wore a crop top that got her in trouble with the librarian.

“I got sent to detention all day. I missed about three classes and wasn’t able to make my swim meet because my shirt was too short,” Paulson said. “I’m still catching up on the work I missed that day. I’m pretty sure that my grade went down.”

Buhach Colony Principal Steve Hobbs could not be reached for comment.

After the experiment, Hobbs sent an email to parents to reinforce the dress code policy, according to Stacy McAfee, assistant superintendent of human resources for Merced Union High School District. Some misinterpreted the message as a change to the policy, but McAfee said there’s been no change.

McAfee said the students were sent to detention only until their parents could bring them a change of clothing.

She said the districtwide dress code policy, which has been in place for five years, is always a sore subject when the temperatures start to rise. “I think dress code is always an issue when the weather gets warm,” McAfee said. “But this was a class project that blew out of proportion.”

Some parents were upset about the students getting detention and contacted the school, McAfee said. The district has received no complaints.

The dress code policy requires shorts to be midthigh, which some say are not sold at most clothing stores. McAfee acknowledged most stores don’t carry midthigh shorts, but said anything shorter is a distraction.

“You have boys that are 16 years old and girls sitting there with their rear ends showing, and it can be a distraction,” McAfee said.

But several Buhach Colony students say the dress code itself isn’t the issue – the problem is administrators are not applying the policy evenly and are targeting girls. They said the social experiment proved that point because the majority of kids in detention were female.

“We felt like they were sexualizing the girls and it’s not OK,” Paulson said. “We don’t wear outfits to show off. We wear them based on what the weather is.”

Allison Cervantes, 16, said two of her friends – a male and a female – wore the exact same outfit to school last Friday. She said they were standing next to each other while school officials walked by and only the female got in trouble.

Buhach Colony junior Ethan Kirk agreed, saying the policy is unfair to females. “A girl will walk by with some short shorts and they’ll get in trouble, over a guy that’s walking by sagging his pants to his knees,” Kirk said.

McAfee said the rules are applied evenly to boys and girls; however, the dress code violations are not the same. She said that’s the reason the majority of students in detention last week were female.

“Boys are not going to wear short shorts, that’s why the majority in detention were girls,” she said, adding that boys who violated the policy by sagging their pants were also punished.

Although the social experiment didn’t result in changes to the dress code, the students said they felt it was a successful movement that raised awareness.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Buhach Colony social experiment results in 80 detentions."