The Downside of School Dress Codes for Female Students

By Briana Naranjo 

Every school has a dress code students must follow. But some of those dress codes are out of line when it comes to what girls wear. For girls, there are a lot of school dress codes that dictate how much thigh and how much shoulder they are allowed to show. Many schools have these dress codes so the students dress “modestly,”  which is understandable to a certain extent. However, many school dress codes focus only on what the girls wear and never focus on what boys wear. This has started major outrage from students, as this is an unfair system and should be changed. 

 

Shirts that show collarbones and shoulders are said to be too “distracting” for the boys and are not “appropriate” for the learning environment. These strict dress codes lead to many counts of girls being sent home due to the fact their clothes were too “revealing” or not “appropriate”. Dress codes don’t just focus on clothing, either: One case of an unfair dress code was in New Orleans, where at“a Roman Catholic school in New Orleans .. a 6th grader was forced to leave the classroom, in tears, for having braided hair extensions, which were against the school’s hair policy.” Braids are such a big part of black culture and are hairstyles that have been used to protect their hair. These hairstyles are harmless but seem to be a problem in certain schools. 

Not only that but students are forced to leave class or even be sent home due to breaking the strict dress codes.  A student can be sent home for having her skirt or shorts an inch under the required length. This can interrupt the student’s learning and affect her grades because she did not meet the clothing requirements. Especially if this student is behind, it can lead to a major impact on the student and can have them failing the classes.  These dress codes show how a student can be affected and how it can make the student feel. 

 

On YouTube, there is a group of women who go through their wardrobes for different high schools to see how much of their wardrobes they could wear to those schools. After they figure this out, they wear an outfit for every school that they had picked but there is a twist: one of those outfits is going to be an outfit that they know violates the dress code but that they think they will be able to get away with. They have a  “principal”  who will be examining each of their outfits to see if they are violating the dress code. 

These videos are great examples of how unfair these dress codes are.  We see how both women have their wardrobe set and read out the dress code and begin to decide what they can and can’t wear. Some school dress codes limit their wardrobe rack to just 3 outfits or more. Not only that but as they read through the dress codes there were some rules that didn’t even make sense, such as “makeup that does not allow direct eye contact”. These dress codes also do not compliment the weather. Schools in Florida where the weather is much hotter do not allow tank tops or crop tops. Some schools don’t even allow leggings or jewelry. If one of the women breaks the school dress code they focused on they had to wear a bright neon yellow shirt that said “dress code violation” in big bolded letters. Some schools do use this shirt as a form to cover up the student, but it leaves the student embarrassed especially since they have to walk all around school weathering the shirt.

 

As they began to review more dress codes you can see how much of an inconvenience it is to follow these dress codes and how these rules dictate what a girl must wear. These dress codes must change to better and equitable ones that actually allow students to be able to wear the clothes they want or have.