Catholic School Under Fire After Student Secretly Records Lesson About Not Dressing 'Provocatively'

Dearborn Divine Child School in Michigan is under fire once again.
Dearborn Divine Child School in Michigan is under fire once again.Google Earth

This comes a year after the same school faced outraged over the "modesty poncho."

“Ladies, if you dress provocatively, if you dress and leave absolutely nothing to the imagination, younger girls look and go, 'Oh my gosh, she’s got plenty of boys around her.'”

That’s what a teacher at the Dearborn Divine Child School in Michigan was recorded saying during a sexual education class that students say perpetuated rape culture and blamed victims for sexual harassment.

The secret recording, obtained by WXYZ, was taken by a student in the class who was fed up with the message the Catholic school was trying to send.

“Those younger guys go, ‘Oh, that’s how you talk about women. That’s how you look at women as an object. Something to be dissected,’” the teacher allegedly said in the recording.

The father of a female student who wanted to remain anonymous told WXYZ the message they were trying to teach came through loud and clear: “He was telling a woman, 'If you dress a certain way, you’re asking for it.'”

Forty students apparently upset about the lesson protested shortly after, pinning homemade targets made of paper to their school uniforms and putting up posters that read, “Instead of publicly shaming girls for dressing how they want, teach men not to over-sexualize women’s bodies,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

They said they were each told to take them off or face an hour in detention, but a few of them who refused did end up staying after school, according to WXYZ.

Dearborn Divine Child School denied both claims and said in a statement: “Our students' comfort, safety and well-being are paramount to their experience at Divine Child High School, and we are taking all concerns seriously. … School administration has no record of students being suspended, issued detentions or otherwise disciplined as a result of this situation.

"While we are confident in the message and value of the program, this input from our community has and will help us continue to improve our delivery of this important information to our students," the statement continued.

Dearborn Divine Child School was under fire last year, when a photo of a “modesty poncho” went viral. Students claimed that if their prom dresses did not meet the dress code, they would be asked to cover up with a poncho administrators planned to dole out.

"We are trying to focus on the inner beauty and not draw attention to something that doesn't need attention drawn to it," theology teacher Mary Pat O’Malley told WJBK at the time.

But parents, students and locals were outraged.

One woman wrote on the school’s Facebook page: “School administrators should take a deep look at what the message is being sent. This is akin to wearing a Scarlet Letter and perpetuates rape culture. It teaches young women that their bodies aren’t theirs.”

The school has not responded to InsideEdition.com’s request for comment.

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