Introduction
When it comes to discussions about the dress code, there’s usually a fairly varied response between both students and administration. I always just assumed that it was some archaic manifestation of old private school dreams, but when my father attended East in the late eighties, there was no dress code. Bangles and denim jackets with the sleeves cut off were standard without much fuss. My mother went to West in the mid nineties, in fact, and the dress code was just being addressed. Students’ pictures in the yearbook had sleeveless shirts and spaghetti strapped dresses, so the question is this:
what changed?
Justification
The most common reason received for justification of the dress code is about the difference between class and wealth levels throughout the student body. Boiling each student down to a base color palette can exacerbate that very problem, however. Being limited to only three shirts and two pairs of dress code-appropriate pants is difficult to juggle when you simply can not afford any more than that, let alone having the time or resources to do laundry three times a week.
e
Otherwise, it falls to a simple list of excuses.
- Designs can be distracting
- Girls will be distracting to boys with their shoulders or knees
- Without a dress code, it will be harder to identify students
Rebuttal
- Designs are hardly noticed, when all students can see in a classroom setting is the back of someone's head
- Teenagers are able to control themselves. Since when was it the fault of a girl when a boy goes out of his way to stare?
- Students on Belleville East campus wear color-coded identification cards on a lanyard at all times. How someone is dressed has no effect on their ID, with the year, full name, picture, and barcode relating to the student on it.
Enforcement
Many teachers are discontent with the dress code as well, many choosing not to enforce the “plain color” rule. Outside of the classroom, however, is where many are caught with their shorts or pants with tears. There are staff members outside, watching for students to send to the office. Is this not more distracting to students than a design on a shirt or even a pair of knees?
Where Do We Go From Here?
Last year, when the dress code was almost non-existent, disciplinary incidents fell to record lows, and there were hardly any complaints from the student body. This year, as the code was partially reinstated, it became evident that these rules do just about as much as wrapping a leaky pipe with aluminum foil. Deviance is inevitable, we are teenagers after all. Punishing the whole group by forcing us to participate in a sub-standard, highly inconvenient, possibly sexist, and personality-dampening dress code simply isn’t logical.
Conclusion
Rules that set loose boundaries for clothing, like explicit designs being banned, can create an environment where all students can cease the torrent of discipline for expressing themselves while appeasing the need for appropriateness in clothing.