Student Spotlight: 8th Graders Ashley, Elsie, and Lilly Kate

Middle School students Ashley, Elsie, and Lilly Kate have shown true leadership at MTS. Inspired by the desire to promote a more equitable environment on campus with regard to the dress code, the three worked together to create a presentation for the administration to request gender neutral uniform requirements. They wrote a letter requesting to stage a protest and created a video about gender equality and why it's important. They felt strongly that students should not be required to wear a uniform designated specifically for girls and boys, but instead should be able to choose from a set of universal school student uniform options, regardless of the gender they identify with. The students organized the school uniform protest for a certain date, and the 7th graders came to school wearing the uniform for what was then designated for the opposite gender.  

MTS is a caring and kind school and so is our community. We believe that it would make a big difference if we could take away the gender from the clothes and make it school uniforms instead of girls uniforms and boys uniforms. This would impact a lot of people and make everything equal. 

Fast forward to the 2021-2022 school year. As 8th graders, Elsie and Ashley noticed that the posted requirements for Picture Day were gender specific, and they followed up with the administration. With their leadership, they worked with the school to help update the official MTS Uniform Guide to ensure that moving forward it would remain gender neutral. We are very impressed with our students and their initiative!

7th grade student uniform protest in the 2020-2021 school year.