Dress Code

Dress codes. Everyone hates them, but of course they’re the rules and we must obey by them.

You’re not allowed to wear any sorts of hats on school premises, which includes fedoras and fish caps. Although they cause no harm to anyone, they are still not permitted on campus. I feel as though if you want to wear a hat then you should be more than welcome to. I know that the school doesn’t really enforce that rule, because I see plenty of kids who wear their hats around.

As a student here, you are not allowed to have any sort of body piercing, including earrings. Again the school doesn’t really enforce this, because even I have a nose ring and never once has anyone said anything about it. Which is good, because I feel like if you want to pierce yourself or modify your body then you should be allowed to, with parents permission of course. In the same rule you are not allowed to wear belts, or chains because they are all seen as a safety hazard. Which I understand why they could be seen in that sense, but mostly people just wear belts to keep their pants up.

You must not wear anything that is a mesh or see through clothing, it doesn’t say whether or not you can have something underneath, but I feel as though if you have some sort of undergarments on and they cover your private parts then you should be able to wear whatever you please. In our generation our personality shines through in how we dress, so why are there so many boundaries against what we can and cannot wear?

We aren’t allowed to wear any sorts of makeup, false nails, or even perfume? Us as girls don’t exactly need these things, but if we enjoy having them apart of us then why not let us. We want to smell nice and look nice.

We also must not wear anything which shows too much shoulder or chest, I understand the chest part to an extent. If you’re going to show off your breasts then you need to keep your shirt up, but our shoulders do not distract anyone from working; they cause zero harm in education.

There are other rules which go by the length of your middle finger, but some people have different arm and finger lengths so everyone’s length will be different to someone else’s. If we’re going to be fair then there should be a set length.

Speaking of being reasonable why do the majority of these rules mostly apply to females or feminine people? I’ve gone around school seeing boys wearing tank tops which show their shoulders and their muscles, which is more socially acceptable than it is for a girl to the same thing. It’s just skin, and it’s nothing that needs to be sexualized, or considered a distraction.

I feel as if the teachers need to focus more on what their students are doing than what they’re students are wearing, because I've seen teachers write up kids for a very small dress code break even though they’ll let kids repetitively break their classroom rules and allow them to be disrespectful.

It’s a “my body my choice” situation. If we as students feel comfortable in the outfit we choose, we shouldn’t have to worry about getting into trouble. We attend school for an education, and whether or not we’re showing our shoulders, or wearing makeup, having a piercing, we’re still doing the one thing we came here for: learning.