The beginning of the school year came with a lot of changes, one of them being the dress code. No one got wind of the change until they started noticing students were not getting pulled aside for the clothes they were wearing.
According to Principal DeRose, they won’t always be this lenient, and students will be getting dress-coded in a way where their “dignity” is kept.

“When we talk to staff about any school rules it has to be because of safety or learning or both. If it doesn’t relate to safety or learning then that isn’t a rule that we are going to enforce,” DeRose said. “I was really glad when the administrators didn’t dress code me for wearing a simple crop top or spaghetti strap,” senior Faith Nguyen said. “I feel like I’m able to wear what I want now without worrying about being pulled out of class or changing into lost and found clothes.”

However, the thing about the new dress code is that it’s not new, it’s just worded differently. The old dress code stated exactly what was too much skin. All it says is that students shouldn’t show an “excessive amount of bare skin”, which is then left up to the person interpreting it to decide what they think too much skin is.
Therefore, how would the dress code be fairly used, because excessive skin is different for everyone.

“I feel like the dress code is meant to attack curvier girls and instills rape culture into the school environment,” senior Sydney Long said. “For example, a skinny girl wearing a V-neck shirt with shorts isn’t going to get dress coded, but if a curvier girl were to wear the same outfit she would be told to change. I’ve seen it happen too many times.”

“I’ve been dress-coded for wearing clothes that barely show my stomach but other girls could just walk around half-naked. People should not be feeling uncomfortable due to the sight of a shoulder” Long said.
Many boys are free to were whatever they want while girls have restrictions. I honestly feel like the dress code would not be an issue if it was pushed equally on everyone, but it is mainly for the female population. We get told to change if what we are wearing is too distracting.

Why does the school not teach others not to be distracted by what a person wears?
“I have never been distracted by what other people wear,” senior Leoule Yared said. “I honestly never understood why the dress code was so harsh on females either. As long as it is not inappropriate, then I do not see a problem.”

In the end, we can not change the dress code overnight. We need to have a lot of uncomfortable conversations first.
The school dress code is sexist toward females and engraves the stereotype that people get treated a way because of what they have on, which is absurd. Someday in the future, I hope it changes and gives students more freedom.