Dress code: not strict enough, or too strict?

Skirts have to be knee length, you cannot show your shoulders, shorts have to be fingertip length. Dress Code is something that many people struggle with during the school day. I believe that we should be more lenient with our dress codes on some areas, and be a little more strict with others.

Many girls in the hallways have said:

“Skinnier girls can get away with shorter things, whereas if you are a girl that is a little bit bigger, she will get in trouble.”

“If they have a dress code, they need to stick with it rather than dress coding some people and not others.”

“Having our shoulders not be able to show is a little bit much. If it is hot out what can I wear?”

When I asked the boys, the response was very different:

“I don’t really notice it that much.”

“I don’t pay attention to it.”

“I just wear whatever.”

Notice that last comment, “I just wear whatever”. Have you ever heard a girl say that about what she wears to school? Look at the difference between the boys’ comments and the girls’ comments. All the boys say they don’t care about the dress code, or they don’t even notice it, whereas girls are being called out and are struggling with the dress code most days of the week.

The one thing that I feel needs to be changed the most is the length of clothing. In our planners it says: “ Students should be neat, clean, and ‘covered’” I think we should stick to this rule because when people are taller or shorter, having things have to go to fingertips can be stressful. I feel we should make it so that it is easier and more lenient for taller girls to wear shorts, dresses, and skirts because they fall above their fingertips and most girls in our school play a sport, which causes they to have to dress up for their weekly games.

Another thing is our shoulders having to be covered. If a girls shoulders are out and a boy becomes distracted by her, then it shows that he needs to be more mature about situations and ignore that certain person. Having such a strict dress code like this can be very distracting for the girls, because they could be very worried about their outfits all day which will cause them to not pay attention in class and get behind on their work.

Changing our dress codes can be beneficial for everyone, and having this could help people pay attention more in school. Girls would not have to worry about their outfits and teachers would not have to worry about dress coding students as much. It would be a win - win for everyone.