It was dad-bod diplomacy.
A frustrated Arizona father stripped down to a belly-baring crop top and unnervingly taut jean shorts during a packed school board meeting to protest its lax dress code policy.
Ira Latham removed his shirt at a podium, revealing a black garment that strained beneath his substantial midsection as startled parents in attendance looked on during the late September gathering in Gilbert.
He completed the jarring ensemble with a pair of snug jean shorts, according to NBC 12.
“Under the proposed policy, this would be appropriate in a classroom,” he told the audience at the Higley Unified School District meeting.
Latham said he picked up the items at a local thrift store ahead of his bold fashion statement.
The controversy first stirred in May, when school board members discussed loosening dress code standards that had not been updated since 2001.
The panel’s progressive wing asserted that the existing restrictions disproportionately targeted females, and proposed allowing exposed midriffs, spaghetti straps and halter tops.
“We’re saying that they need to cover up because of the way it might make someone else feel and that is wrong,” said Tiffany Shultz, the governing board president.
Others called for more stringent rules regarding dress.
“If we are prepping our children to be college- and career-ready, then they need to learn to be able to have self-respect and that doesn’t include showing off their body parts,” said panelist Anna Van Hoek.
Latham — who has a daughter in the district at Higley High School — took the latter position.
“The dress code that they wanted to get to is just basically a dress code for a public pool,” he told NBC. “Make sure that kids cover their underwear and that’s about it.”
Despite his 11th-hour protest, the board eventually voted for the more lenient dress code by a 3-2 margin.
“It’s gonna get harder for the teachers to deal with this new policy,” the concerned dad said.
“It’s gonna be distracting in the classroom and it’s gonna have some parents that want to pull their kids out of the district.”
