SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – A San Jose high school’s dress code policy and enforcement has cheerleaders hopping mad.

For the first time, cheerleaders at Piedmont Hills High School in East San Jose are not allowed to wear mini-skirt uniforms on campus. Principal Traci Williams issued the new mandate because she felt the uniforms were problematic in the classroom.

“Out of respect for length where if you were to bend over or squat your personal business will remains personal,” said Williams. “The classrooms are an academic environment and when the skirts are far below the standards of what they should be it’s a distraction in the classroom and so we just ask that students respect the classroom.”

Members of the cheerleading squad spoke out to CBS 5, but did not want to be identified.

“I just feel like it’s part of the whole cheerleading experience to wear it to school and show your school pride, so it’s just disappointing in a way,” one of the girls on the squad said.

“People, they are making comments, they’re kind of calling us rude names. But before everyone said our uniforms are really cute, and my friends, they don’t think it’s fair that we aren’t allowed to express ourselves in our uniforms now, said another.

KCBS’ Matt Bigler Reports:

Piedmont Hills High School student Sarah Brillion said the new policy just doesn’t make sense.

“If they didn’t want them to wear it, why would they let them pay for it,” she said.

The cheerleaders paid about $300 for their uniforms. This year, the squad also chose their own hemlines and Williams said some of those lines were above the mid-thigh limit.

“I sat with my colleague from Evergreen and I said, your cheer skirts are okay,” Williams said. “And we looked at our cheer squad and she said, yours are really short.”

So Williams launched the crackdown. The cheerleaders are allowed to wear their skirts to games but at school, they have to wear leggings underneath.

“It’s not the cheer skirt itself, it’s that there’s an appropriate length and that if the consistency was made on the squad to where they all came to the same length this wouldn’t be an issue,” said Williams.

The principal said one mistake the school made was not having a strict standard for cheerleader hemlines, which may change next year. She also said the ban is only for classroom periods, and that the girls would be able to wear them to games and pep rallies.

“Personally, it doesn’t affect me because I don’t wear a skirt,” said Eric Sherman, the lone male member of the cheer squad. “But they’re my teammates so if they feel pain, I feel pain for them.”

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