In a high school in Kocaeli’s Gebze district, some female students were not allowed to attend the graduation ceremony held in the school garden on the grounds that they were wearing clothes that did not comply with the dress code. While students and their families reacted against the school administration, a gendarmerie team was dispatched to the area. After the Gebze District Director of National Education arrived at the school, all students attended the graduation ceremony.
The school administration organized a graduation ceremony for students at Alaettin Kurt Anatolian High School in Kirazpınar neighborhood of Gebze district. Before the ceremony, the ‘Graduation Commission’ formed by the school sent a ‘Parental Permission Approval Form’ to the parents.
The form reads, ‘Students are not allowed to wear clothes with tears or holes and transparent clothes in accordance with the National Spiritual Values and the basic restrictions in the dress code. Students cannot wear shorts, tights, skirts above the knee, short pants, sleeveless shirts and t-shirts that show body lines. They cannot use scarves, berets, hats, bags and similar materials with symbols, shapes and writings containing political symbols), and parents were asked to sign.
GENDARMERIE DISPATCHED
Before the graduation ceremony held in the evening today, some female students were not allowed to attend the ceremony on the grounds that they were wearing clothes contrary to the regulations. While the door was closed to the students, some parents and students reacted against the school administration. An argument broke out between the parents and the school administration. Upon the tension, a gendarmerie team was dispatched to the school upon a call.
‘UNFORTUNATELY STUDENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED INSIDE BECAUSE THEY ARE OPEN’
One parent said, “Unfortunately, students are not allowed inside because they are open.” Another parent said, “My children can use their equality rights to the fullest. But if it is an Imam Hatip School, in the dress code, if they are not wearing a headscarf, but open, etc., of course they cannot enter in this way. But in a normal school, in a Science High School, in an Anatolian High School, children can wear whatever they want without exaggeration. How right is it to make these children wait like this when their parents are with them?” A student showed the dress she was wearing and said, “They didn’t let me in because of this dress.”
After the incident was reported, Gebze District Director of National Education Şener Doğan arrived at the school. After talking to parents and students, Doğan let all students inside and allowed them to attend the graduation ceremony.
‘IT IS YET ANOTHER ADDITION TO THE POINTLESS DISCUSSIONS AND PRACTICES CARRIED OUT OVER WOMEN’S DRESS’
Eğitim-İş Union Kocaeli Branch No. 2 made a written statement reacting to the incidents. The statement included the following statements:
“Today, it was shared on social media by parents that female students were not allowed to attend the graduation ceremony at Gebze Alaattin Kurt Anatolian High School on the grounds of their attire, and in the research we conducted as a union, the school administration asked to see the attire of the female students days before the program on the pretext that the protocol would attend, and it was said that the students whose attire was approved would be included in the program.
In today’s program, students whose clothes were not approved by the school administration were not admitted and kept waiting in front of the school gate. This practice is unworthy of the secular Republic of Turkey, which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Republic.
