Dress Code: Yes Or No?

By: Grace Pilkay

A lot of people can agree that the school dress code is not always fair. Yes, we do need to have a limit of what is allowed so girls don’t show up wearing bikinis, but the school seems to be going to extreme lengths to make sure girls do not have many options as to what they can wear. For example, some of the dress code policies are no sagging. Skirts, dresses, shorts, and holes/rips in jeans/pants must be at or below fingertip length. No hats in the building (boys or girls), no “running shorts”, leggings/yoga pants must be worn with a shirt, which reaches mid­thigh, hosiery/tights are not substitutes for leggings/yoga pants. Sleepwear, pajamas, and/or blankets cannot be worn in school. All shirts must have sleeves and cover shoulders, chest, abdomen, and back.

No one wants to see people showing up with two-inch-long shorts on, but some people have longer legs or are taller so they may make the shorts appear shorter making that rule not fair. Two girls could be wearing the same pair of shorts, but one girl is 5´10 while the other is 5´4. The taller girl will get dress coded because the shorts will appear shorter, and her arms are probably longer making them not fingertip length. While it's hot outside, not every girl wants to wear pants with a shirt that covers almost every inch of their body.

Another thing about shorts, “No running shorts”, some people only like to dress athletic every day, or maybe that’s all they have. So if they have to be fingertip length AND no running shorts then what are they left with? Next rule, Leggings and yoga pants are worn with a shirt: people care about what they look like. Some girls don’t want to wear a huge shirt with their leggings or yoga pants because most of the time they want to look presentable and not just focus on distracting boys every day.

And lastly, the one rule that makes me 100x madder than the others? Tank tops. I understand them being loose and hanging down or showing things no one needs to see, but there are many tank tops that are not inappropriate whatsoever and that is probably what takes up most girls' closets, especially during the first semester of school. Not to mention, if they do want to wear a tank top when school starts they normally will have to wear a jacket over it, even in 90-degree weather. Understandably, we don’t want to see anything falling out, but tank tops in general should be allowed. Yes, we should have limits to what we are able to wear, but the people in charge should take students' opinions into consideration.

(P.S. The following image is an example of ¨breaking dress code¨.)