All parents know the feeling of picking up their child from school and seeing them wearing something other than what they were dressed in that morning. Most often, it’s for a simple and valid reason. Especially with young children, it’s not uncommon to have potty accidents or to get dirty and messy at lunch or during playtime.

But when one Minnesota mother found out the reason for why her 5-year-old daughter’s outfit was changed, she was disturbed and concerned.

Emily Stewart had dressed her daughter to school in a pretty summer dress and a sweater to wear on top. The dress was a gift from her grandmother. But when she picked up her five-year-old daughter from kindergarten in the afternoon she was dressed in a T-shirt and pants.

As it turned out, the school’s dress code says that students are not allowed to wear spaghetti straps to class.

It was all well and good when Stewart’s daughter arrived at school because she was wearing a sweater. But when she took the sweater off, the teacher took her aside.

The incident had the 5-year-old in tears, which concerned her mother. But she’s even more upset about one thing: in her mind, asking a child to change out of a spaghetti strap dress implies that she was dressed inappropriately.

Stewart also felt that her daughter had been unable to advocate for herself because of her age.

“I think that when we’re talking about the body of a little girl and determining what’s appropriate and what’s not, you need to talk to the parent because that’s a violation of her privacy and her body without consulting anybody,” said Stewart.

Stewart was rightfully upset and contacted the school asking for an explanation right away.

Naturally, she didn’t like that she wasn’t consulted upon how her daughter was to be redressed. She shared her sentiments on Facebook.

“It didn’t occur to me that an adult would look at my 5-year-old child and think that wearing a dress was inappropriate,” she wrote.

She was very upset about the messages that were being sent by teachers and administrators, including the school nurse who made the decision to make her change.

“As a mother, how am I supposed to teach my daughter to love and celebrate her body when she has people telling her she ‘needs privacy,’” She shared on Facebook, “What exactly is private about a 5-year-olds shoulders? Why is it ok to put my daughters bare shoulders before her education? Why was her dress looked at as an inappropriate outfit to begin with? She is 5 why is she being sexualized? How do I teach a little girl that what she wears and her appearance is not nearly as important as her education and self development when things like this happen?”

Her daughter was also humiliated by the interaction and broke down crying in the car.

She had been so excited to wear the dress that her grandmother had gifted her, especially because Minnesota hardly ever has nice enough weather to do so.

Fortunately, this story does have a happy ending, as is covered in the photos below.

After Stewart raised the issue, the school reviewed its dress code policy and amended it. School administrators are no longer permitted to make assessments about the appropriateness of a child’s clothes.

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Sources: Fox9, Facebook