In social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr, a youth-dominated revolution has been brewing. It started when Lindsey Stocker, a Montreal High School student, became outraged by her high school’s dress code regulations. After being told to change her shorts, deemed “inappropriate” and “distracting”by school staff, Stocker began to post signs around her school expressing her qualms, which read, “Don’t humiliate her because she’s wearing shorts. It’s hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.”

In theory, the message seems right. Women shouldn’t be objectified by men, and men should know not to objectify women, a concept instilled in them by family values, religion or societal rules learned at an early age. However, there’s a fine line here. To what extent can boys be blamed for looking at girls? It’s in human DNA: boys will look at girls and men will look at women simply because it is one of our primal instincts.

Perhaps, instead of singling guys out for their behavior towards girls, we should be focusing on the catalyst for their behavior. As girls see female models and actresses in the media showing more and more skin, a message is sent out that it’s okay for them to dress in the same way. As girl teenagers are strutting barely clothed through school in stilettos and flashy tank tops, their image has totally changed —from the nice girl, to the naughty girl one wouldn’t want to take home to meet mom. Guys will see this paradigm shift in their female counterparts and will act accordingly. Call it sexually objectifying or not, if girls are wearing revealing clothing, guys will see what is being shown: girls’ bodies.

Kids are nixing the standard school-enforced dress code of no spaghetti straps, no bare shoulders and no midriffs. What if these dress codes aren’t for students to rebel against? Public schools and private schools have the same goal —to educate their students. However, if the students are focusing on petitioning against school appropriate dress, their attention has shifted from academics to something else entirely.

Because students are increasingly treating school as a fashion runway rather than a learning environment, the average female student is focusing less on her U.S history test tomorrow morning and more on picking out an outfit for school, lamenting that there isn’t enough time to curl her hair.

As the next generation becomes absorbed in its self-image, more selfies will be taken, cosmetology tips will preside over college apps and, above all, girls will be fretting about why they can’t show off their long legs and stomachs to all their friends at school.

Stocker was partially right: young girls shouldn’t be shamed for their bodies, especially in their tender teen years when insecurities are so easily developed. However, their dress shouldn’t be a distraction, especially in a learning environment where the focus is academics, not socialization. In high school, hormones are raging; girls like boys, boys like girls and being scantily clothed will not help suppress these notions. School dress codes are in place not to shame a student for her body, but rather to make sure that all students are focusing on learning.

So, girls, go ahead and wear your tube tops and short shorts since it’s so hot outside but just don’t expect to be let into the air-conditioned school building.