Prom Dress That Got Girl Suspended From School Picture

Be very, very careful about what you wear to the prom in Alabama. Over a dozen students at Oxford High School were disciplined for dress code violations this weekend and offered a choice: corporal punishment or a 3-day suspension. The dress code prohibits, among other things, transparent materials and revealing necklines. “Our community has certain expectations of what is appropriate,” the principal says.

Oxford High School officials said Erica DeRamus’s prom dress was too low-cut and too short, breaking the rules of the school’s dress code — which stipulates that necklines must not plunge below students’ breastbones and skirt hems must not be higher than six inches above the knee.

Of the 352 Oxford High students who attended the prom, officials said 18 violated the dress code. All but DeRamus chose paddling as punishment, with DeRamus opting for a three-day suspension.

“I’m a little too old to get paddled…This is high school, we’re seniors,” DeRamus told WBRC. “If we’re going to act up, give us another option besides being paddled because this isn’t the 1940s. We don’t take corporal punishment now.”

Picture of the prom dress that got the girl suspended from school.

DeRamus said she knew her school had dress code policies, but didn’t think her dress would violate them. But when she got to prom Saturday, officials told her it was too short and too revealing.

“What cleavage? That’s exactly what I said. I wasn’t trying to be rude or anything, but that’s what I feel,” DeRamus said.

“If I felt it was too much cleavage in this dress, I wouldn’t have purchased this dress,” said her mother, Darrie DeRamus. “It would have stayed in that store and I wouldn’t have even gotten it off the Internet and paid for it.”

But principal Trey Holloday said it violated school policy stating that dresses cannot have cleavage falling below the breastbone or hems more than 6 inches above the knee.