Hope Mills, N.C. — Cheerleaders at South View High School can no longer wear their uniforms to school on Fridays before football games because the principal says they violate the dress code.

Principal Brian Edkins said the skirts of the cheerleaders' uniforms are too short, and he ordered the cheerleaders to wear jeans or sweat pants, along with football jerseys, to school.

"The cheeerleading skirts didn't meet the dress code. They were in violation," Edkins said.

South View High's dress code prohibits "clothing that reveals undergarments, chest, breast, navel, buttocks or any private body part." The skirts clearly skirted some of those areas, he said.

The cheerleaders wore the same uniforms last year after they were approved by the school's athletic director. Edkins cracked down this year after a parent complained that other female students were sent being home for wearing similarly short skirts.

WRAL News wasn't allowed to talk to any cheerleaders at South View High, but Edkins said they have accepted the change.

"When they first heard about it, they were upset," he said. "We explained to them that we look at our cheerleaders and all of our athletes as role models and leaders and that we needed them to set the tone for the school (as far as) what's acceptable in the dress code."

Some students questioned why the school didn't cut the cheerleaders some slack instead of making them wear slacks to class – especially since this Friday is the school's homecoming game.

"It's showing school spirit, and you're going to see it whether it's at a football game or a basketball game," student Josh Looker said. "It's kind of pointless taking (the skirts) out of school."

Edkins said that the short skirts might be appropriate to wear on the sidelines, but they're inappropriate in the classroom. He said the football players don't wear their pants to school, and other athletes don't wear their uniforms in class either.

The cheerleaders were allowed to wear the skirts to South View High's pep rally immediately after school Friday, as well as to the homecoming game.