The mother of a 10-year-old New Brunswick girl whose school outfit was deemed inappropriate says the school went too far in enforcing the dress code, and has embarrassed her daughter.

Grade 5 student Khenady Barton was stopped in the school hallway on Wednesday by her teacher, who informed her that her mother had been called over her shirt.

Officials at the Hampton, N.B. school told her mother, Natasha Barton, that the girl “was dressed inappropriately for school.”

According to Barton, the floral-print short-sleeve T-shirt apparently rang alarm bells during physical activities, such as playing outdoors.

“When she’s playing skip-rope, her shirt lifts up a little bit cause it’s not a tight-fitting shirt, it’s loose fitting,” Barton told CTV Atlantic. “And you can see a glimpse of her mid-section. “

Barton said she was “floored” by the phone call.

“My first reaction was shock, thinking, did she change her clothes when she went to school, because the outfit I saw on her that morning was fine” she said.

News of the reprimand quickly spread on Facebook, where commenters expressed outrage.

“Shaming girls is not the way to fix this … the reasoning behind the decisions they are making is so so wrong,” wrote Kelly Lanigan-Gavel. “The only lesson learned is that a young girl is now embarrassed of her body.”

Barton says she has some sympathy for school districts trying to enforce dress codes at a time when youth attire is in the spotlight.

“There should be proper attire at school, I absolutely agree with that,” the mother said. “What I’m upset about is my 10-year-old daughter was not dressed inappropriately for school, in my opinion.”

Barton said that the way school officials went about it brought down her daughter’s self-esteem.

“I felt a little embarrassed and I was kind of scared to go home, thinking that my mom would be mad at me,” Khenady said.

CTV Atlantic contacted the Anglophone South school district but has yet to receive a response.

Barton said school districts need to review both their dress codes and how students and parents are notified of problems, particularly at the elementary school level.

With a report by CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron