Judgemental Boy Says Teacher Wearing 'Inappropriate' Jeans & T-Shirt Should Be Dress Coded At School
She's barely showing any skin but some critics expect her to somehow cover up more.
TikTok, Instagram With all of the unfair dress coding going on and the dangerous restrictions being placed on teenage girls, it’s hard to notice when these same concepts are affecting the people who are supposed to be taking care of the children — the teachers.
After a photo of an elementary school art teacher from Pennsauken, New Jersey went viral in late 2022, she was quickly put under the fire of hundreds of thousands of people that deemed her outfit inappropriate — but it wasn’t really about what she was wearing.
The New Jersey art teacher was criticized for wearing jeans and a t-shirt to school.
“Do you think this is appropriate? For school? To be wearing? Look what she [has] on,” says a boy who commented on the art teacher’s clothes in a TikTok that has amassed many responses. With the clear intent of trying to say that her clothes were inappropriate, many men and women jumped to the teacher’s defense, saying that her clothes weren’t the problem, but that he was.
She was wearing a pair of jeans — with a belt, I might add — some sneakers, and an ordinary T-shirt. Were they tight on her? Sure, but she’s completely covered head-to-toe unless we want to start complaining about how inappropriate women’s forearms are for the human eye.
“Her school outfit was not inappropriate,” says the woman who stitched the boy’s original TikTok — which has since been deleted. “There is not a material, an item, a jacket, a coat, a shower curtain, that is going to hide all that a--. I’m sorry, and be offended.”
“Maybe if we quit sexualizing women’s bodies in everyday wear, this wouldn’t be an issue, because it’s not an issue.”
She goes into talking about how dress codes unfairly target “thicker women” and claims that if she had been a thinner teacher, no one would have said a peep.
The art teacher spoke out about the hate she was receiving and said something similar.
The art teacher, whose name is Roxsana Diaz, spoke out about the situation on her Instagram account several times and even made an appearance on the Tamron Hall Show to talk about the backlash she was getting.
The photo that went viral had originally been posted in March 2021 but sat on her page unbothered for over a year and a half before anyone started talking about it in August 2022.
“The first time I saw it, honestly, I thought it was funny,” she explained on the Tamron Hall Show, explaining that she had originally been tagged in a lot of memes made about the image.
“In the beginning, when people were tagging me in these things, it was a lot of positive [stuff]. I’m thinking ‘I’m doing something,’” she continues. “As far as ‘yeah, I look great, let me show curvy women how to dress appropriately in school.’”
She saw it as an opportunity to spread body positivity for curvy women everywhere, but instead, people turned it into something to criticize her for and complained about inappropriate it was for her to wear clothes that fit her body. The children she’s teaching are elementary schoolers who don’t even think in the same way that other people do — they’re not sexualizing her.
Roxsana Diaz doesn’t let all of the negativity and criticism get her down.
Despite all of the noise, she has had a lot of big supporters, including famous rapper Fat Joe, who made a video about how people were trying to get her fired, and the woman that took the photo — one of her student’s mother.
“They’re trying to fire her because she too sexy,” Fat Joe — whose real name is Joseph Antonio Cartagena — said in the YouTube video. “She too beautiful. She’s too curvaceous.”
Jolea Ardnt, who was interviewed as part of Diaz’s appearance on the Tamron Hall show, claimed that she had originally taken the photo innocently because Diaz was doing a great job as a teacher and her child loved it there. “I’m one of the parents that hopped on and started defending her, and snapping, and doing what I thought was right,” Ardnt explained. She claimed it was wrong of people to bash her for her body and use that criticism to take away from what she actually accomplishes in the classroom.
Diaz herself has claimed that a lot of her biggest supporters come from the mothers of her students as well, according to an Instagram Live she filmed in August 2022.
Diaz has a passionate love for art and for teaching children and believes that people should be spending their energy fighting different fights, not trying to police what a grown woman is appropriately wearing while she’s at work.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.