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School tells girls to cover up bathing suits - at a water park

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about dress codes lately, but this story may be the most absurd of all.

Girls from a public school in Elmira, Ont.. say they were told to cover up because they were wearing two-piece bathing suits on a school trip - to a water park.

Park Manor Public School said it would be revisiting its dress code policy after a girl complained that she and others were told to cover up their tops while on a class trip to Bingemans Big Splash in Kitchener, Ont., according to the Waterloo Region Record.

The school sets its own dress code, but a spokesperson for the school board said covering up was standard practice.

"The practice of requesting that tank tops be worn over two-pieced bathing suits has been in place for many years at the school," (Waterloo Region School Board) spokesperson Lynsey Meikle said in an email.

Not only is that counter-intuitive for a water park, it may be unsafe. Mark Bingeman, president of Bingemans, told the Record that wearing shirts over bathing suits could actually be dangerous at the park.

"The only time we are concerned with attire is on the water slides," said Bingeman.

But the concern there is loose-fitting T-shirts, which can get caught on the slide or bunch up around the neck, especially on smaller children.

Bingeman said the park has never had a complaint about what kids were wearing.

"We have lots of one-pieces and two-pieces," he said. "It really is up to the individual and what they feel like wearing."

Meikle said the school would re-evaluate its dress code for such events in the fall.