Prom is quickly approaching, you're struggling to find the perfect dress, now add another step: a green light from your school?

  • Students at Milwaukee school must submit photos wearing prom attire
  • Superintendent said boys, girls both must adhere to rule
  • He said some girls were pushing the boundaries of appropriate attire

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recently shed light on a Wisconsin high school that mandates students who wish to wear dresses to dances must submit pictures of themselves wearing attire for approval in advance.

The Pewaukee High School dress code was implemented in 2015.

"The fact that we had to send a photo of ourselves in our dresses before we could purchase a ticket to any dance was unneeded and intensely uncomfortable," former Pewaukee student Jackie Henderson wrote on Facebook. "Sending a front AND BACK photo is invading privacy and actually kind of embarrassing."

Pewaukee School District Superintendent Mike Cady told the Sentinel the policy isn't sexist and that the dress code also includes items that appear to be directed at boys; for example, students can't wear low-hanging pants that expose their underwear or behinds.

But he said it was girls who forced the district to impose the pre-dance check by pushing the boundaries of appropriate attire at school formals.

"It's really out of a sensitivity to our students," Cady said. "We want (school dances) to be a positive experience. We don't want anyone to show up and have to be sent home because of a dress-code violation."