ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Students at an Albuquerque high school are pushing to change the district’s dress code, saying it’s too restrictive and outdated. They’ve started a petition and even some teachers are now backing them.

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KRQE News 13 spoke with the student spearheading the petition because she believes the dress code is unfair to female students. 

“I’ve been told what I’m wearing is a distraction, either if it’s my shoulders showing or my midriff and it makes me feel bad about myself because it’s not the clothing that is the problem, it’s our natural bodies as women,” said Brandy Brockman, a senior at Eldorado High School.  

Brockman just created this petition over the weekend on Change.org urging the school and the district to change the dress code at Eldorado to make it more lenient. She said she doesn’t understand why it’s inappropriate to wear a tank top in 90-degree heat. Brockman said if students don’t abide by the dress code, they’re sent to the main office to change or will get sent home if they refuse to cover up. 

“It makes me feel disrespected, especially all of us girls because what we’re labeled as when we’re showing skin is a distraction to boys or just the classmates,” said Brockman. “When I could say anything, it was a distraction in class. So for us being labeled as distractions is dehumanizing.”

Albuquerque Public Schools dress code bans, “excessively tight or revealing clothes, short shorts, skirts and dresses, bare midriffs and off-the-shoulder blouses.” The petition already has more than 1,000 signatures. 

Brockman and some of her fellow students hope to speak with the APS board or the principal in the coming weeks to plead their case. News 13 reached out to APS and a spokesperson with the district said no one was available to speak on the matter on Monday.