70 girls were banned from their graduation over fake nails. There's a double standard at play.

This week, it's been reported that up to 70 students from an all-girls high school in Sydney were denied from participating in their own Year 10 graduation ceremonies.

It wasn't due to poor attendance, disruptive behaviour in class, or anything that would rationally come to mind. 

Instead, it came down to their appearance. 

Dozens of parents contacted local newspaper the Manly Observer to share their frustration over the matter at the Mackellar Girls Campus public school in Manly Vale, alleging their kids had been banned from their own graduation ceremony because they were wearing acrylic nails. 

In an email sent to the students prior to the graduation, they had been told not to wear "brightly coloured nails or fake eyelashes". But as one parent explained, the girls' Year 10 formal took place late last week, meaning many of the girls still had fake nails on – most of them being a natural nail colour or French polish. 

On the day of the graduation, all the students arrived and were reportedly examined heavily by the school staff – resulting in up to 70 girls being kept in a classroom separate to the main hall where the graduation was taking place. They were not able to walk up on stage and receive their certificate, nor were they even acknowledged during the ceremony. 

Their parents in the audience watched on, confused as to why their daughters were nowhere to be seen.

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One mother said to Manly Observer that she received a distressed phone call from her daughter soon after the ceremony, saying "I'm not allowed to walk on the stage because they don't like my nails".

"Simultaneously a bunch of parents all got phone calls from their daughters. No one told us anything, no one apologised. We were already pretty irate, but no one wanted to talk to us. [The girls] we're just in floods of tears. It just felt cruel."

As another parent said: "They have made it clear now many times that a student's appearance matters more to them than education, all in the name of 'reputation' subsequently damaging it at the same time."

On behalf of the school, a Department of Education spokeswoman said that "students and parents were given written and verbal advice on the expectations around uniform and behaviour on multiple occasions since the start of the school year".

They said around 20 of the 239 Year 10 students were affected by this ban, however parents have pushed back on this, saying the numbers were far greater.

In the wake of this story going viral, hundreds and hundreds of students – not only from Mackellar Girls Campus, but several other Australian schools as well – have shared their own experiences of dealing with frankly ridiculous school uniform rules. 

And it's clear that the rules are skewed to one gender alone. Take a guess as to which one.

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Susannah and all her female peers were regularly made to kneel on the floor where the school staff would measure the length of their skirt hems. Anything that wasn't touching the floor was an immediate no-no. 

Rosie still feels a wave of anger run when she remembers the time one of the school's office ladies told her to remove her nail polish. She was wearing rainbow colours to celebrate Mardi Gras. 

At Madeleine's school, she could only wear her hair in a ponytail or plait. Buns were forbidden. 

Charlie experienced similar. No fake nails, no nail polish, no 'uniquely' coloured hair and no makeup. She distinctly remembers one year when she was forced to take off the thin layer of concealer she was wearing that was covering up her acne. It almost made her cry.

For Sydney, she had her dress hem literally unpicked by a teacher because they deemed it too short. She also wasn't allowed to wear earrings for most of her schooling years – only clear plastic studs.

Lisa vividly remembers the moment one of her friends was given a pair of scissors by a teacher and told that she had to cut off her anklet. This anklet was underneath her school-approved pair of stockings, so the anklet outline was barely visible. But it was enough of a transgression in the teacher's eyes to warrant punishment.

Jess even received a detention for having a small bit of mascara on her eyes, left over from the weekend. She would also receive 'uniform notes' from a "creepy" male teacher to tell her that she was wearing the wrong bra underneath her school shirt.

All these women who shared their stories with Mamamia didn't go to the same sort of school. Instead, the schools themselves were vastly different from one another – some were private, some were religious, and others were public. But they all shared one common trait. And it's the unfair policing of girls' school uniforms.

Seldom do we hear stories of similar scenarios happening to male students. Some are perhaps required to have certain haircuts or not have facial stubble. Rarely are they not allowed to attend their own graduation ceremony due to a minor uniform mishap.

Feature Image: Manly Observer / Mackellar Girls Campus.