A Halifax-area student says there is a double standard at her school because teachers aren’t following the same dress code required for students.

Cassidy Pace, 15, says she understands why a dress code is in place at the Eastern Passage Education Centre, but she doesn’t understand why teachers aren’t required to follow it.

“I felt like there was kind of a double standard with teachers,” says the Grade 9 student.

She says the school has a policy about the length of skirts and dresses, as well as tight pants and bare shoulders.

“If we’re wearing a dress, it has to be to our knees or to the bottom of our hands standing up, which I understand that, but when teachers go and they have dresses that are shorter, or maybe they’re wearing really high, high heels, and yet, if we wear like, a little bit of a heel we get in trouble.”

The principal of Eastern Passage Education Centre wasn’t at the school on Friday. The teacher who was sitting in declined to comment on the matter, instead directing questions to the school board.

But a spokesperson for the Halifax Regional School Board says there is no board-wide policy and, therefore, dress codes are not a school board issue.

“From the school board’s perspective, we expect all of our staff to be professional at all times so we don’t lay out what they can and cannot wear,” says Doug Hadley.

But Pace and her mother say maybe someone should be telling teachers what they can and cannot wear.

“I would think as role models they would want to teach by example and not be hypocritical,” says Theresa Blackburn.

Both mother and daughter say they love the school and they love the teachers, but they feel it’s unfair to have two sets of rules.

“We’ve always been taught like in school, we should always be by the rules and everyone has to follow the same rules and everything and I’ve always been taught that by my parents too,” says Pace.

“So I just thought, if we’re supposed to follow the same rules, why can teachers be different.”

No one at the school would comment on the matter Friday. It is unclear whether the school actually requires teachers to follow the same dress code as students.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell