Authorities from Southaven Middle School are walking back a memo sent home to families on Tuesday, which offered female students bras and shapewear to help with “negative body image” issues. A copy of the letter was shared by 45-year-old mom Ashley Heun from Southaven, Mississippi, on Twitter, who was stunned by the school’s odd suggestion.
Heun was “appalled” by the letter, which her eighth grader, Caroline, brought home earlier this week.
This is what was sent home with my 8th grade daughter at Southaven Middle School. All girls were sent home with this letter. I’m appalled at the fact that they are trying to fix “negative body image” by sending home SHAPEWEAR! @cory_uselton @TweetDCS @DCSeNews @SouthavenMiddle pic.twitter.com/tmluXTW990
— Ashley Heun (@ashleyheun) January 11, 2022
The letter, which Heun shared in full on Twitter, asked parents to consider why girls “suffer from body image.”
“Body image is a perception of one’s body, and simultaneously, a measure of one’s attractiveness,” it began.
The letter claimed that girls are more likely to suffer from “negative body image” than boys and that negative body image can lead to “certain mental health conditions” and “low self-esteem.”
The school then offered its solution: shapewear.
“We, the counselors of Southaven Middle School, would like to have an opportunity to offer some healthy literature to your daughter on maintaining a positive body image,” the letter read. “We are also providing girls with shapewear, bras, and other health products if applicable.”
Parents were asked for permission for the school to give their daughters the garments, which included both shapewear tops and bottoms, and even to submit their daughter’s bra size if they wanted to participate. They also were given the opportunity to opt out of the program.
To Heun, this whole thing missed the mark.
“All girls were sent home with this letter,” the mom wrote on Twitter. “I’m appalled at the fact that they are trying to fix ‘negative body image’ by sending home SHAPEWEAR!”
Speaking with Today, Heun said she read the letter several times to make sure she wasn’t mistaken by its meaning.
She told the news program she felt “really angry” and immediately wrote a response letter to her daughter’s school. She explained that she shared the letter on Twitter “to rally the troops to change this and to really let the school know how exactly tone-deaf it was.”
Heun said she heard back from the school the next day and received an in-person apology from Caroline’s principal.
He told her the program was canceled and DeSoto County Schools confirmed to Today that the program has been “discontinued.”
“The district has been made aware of the parental permission form sent to parents by Southaven Middle School,” Lauren Margeson, DeSoto County Schools’ assistant to the superintendent, told the news program. “District officials understand how this type of information causes serious concern from parents.”
The mom said she understood the move was made with "really good intentions" but ultimately it was "kind of ill conceived.”
She also pointed out that boys had body image issues too.
Heun said she’s received a ton of support for her cause online and was even sought out by body positivity advocate and podcaster Julia Parzyck, who promised to reach out to school officials to help them put “better information out there for all children."
Thanksfully, Heun’s daughter thought the whole thing was “stupid,” CNN reported, but that doesn’t mean that other girls wouldn’t take the message to heart.
That is why Heun was happy to take a stand. She told Today that from now on, she’ll "advocate for any girl who feels 'less than' because of her body size."
