With more and more fashion pushing the boundaries of appropriateness, the school is considering beefing up its dress code to make it more specific and less open to interpretation.
Assistant principal Karen Hyde said the change needs to be introduced at the beginning of a school year and printed in the student handbook, so both parents and students know exactly what is expected.
The school’s current dress code bans clothing that depicts profanities, drugs and apparel that fails to cover undergarments, according to the student handbook. The code also requires that shirts and shorts “must be at a length appropriate for the school.”
According to Hyde, as of now there are no specifics as to what the dress code will be restricting; the general idea for a revised code must be approved first.
“The concern certainly is more of, can we cover more body parts?” Hyde said. “Teachers have to agree [on a standard] because a student can’t go to her first-period teacher’s class who says nothing about her but it’s second period that sends her down [to the office] immediately.”
Laying down the rules for a stricter and clearer dress code would clear up the confusion on what attire is appropriate for school, but the change will only work if the staff is willing to collaborate, Hyde said.
“Teachers need to implement [the code]. I’m not out there enough to see so-and-so in a shirt that my cat wouldn’t wear,” Hyde said. “You tend to support that which you help create, so [the support] would have to come from within the staff. It’s not one of those top down things.”
Hyde also mentioned that a new dress code would have to be practical as well, especially when longer shorts and more modest dresses sometimes cannot be found easily in stores.
“That’s the hard part,” Hyde said. “It’s not like [girls] go special order [dresses] or buy something in the children’s department.”
Hyde said that a revised dress code would have to be practical and easily implemented. There also has to be a clear majority of both students and teachers in favor of the new code.
“Everyone has to buy it,” she said.