Fashion is always changing. What is fashionable and what is popular change frequently. What is appropriate depends on who is making the decisions. Throughout history, parents and kids have disagreed on what is appropriate.
Back to school shopping is the 2nd biggest shopping season of the year after the Christmas season. What clothes to buy are often determined by school dress codes. And as school is starting up, we have seen many controversies over school dress codes and the year has only just begun.
There was the 4-year-old boy who was sent home from per-kindergarten because his hair was too long. A copy of the public schools dress code policy for grades students in Kindergarten thought 5th grade states, “The district’s dress code is established to set the standard of excellence, set our students apart from others, teach grooming/hygiene, prevent disruption, and minimize safety hazards.” This is not the only district banning long hair for boys as part of their dress codes. Other stories including one boy with dreadlocks which he has grown from birth following with his Rastafarian beliefs have caused some controversy and concern too.
While there are examples of controversies among the dress codes for boys, however, in most situations, school dress codes single out girls. Too many dress codes tell girls that the natural shapes of their bodies are not ok and are too distracting to boys.
A principal at Stratford high school in Goose Creek South Carolina, allegedly made a remark at a school assembly that only girls sizes 0-2 (BTW how can there be a size 0 for girls clothing?) should wear leggings because girls bigger than size 2 will look fat if they wear leggings.
50+ girls were sent home at San Benito High School in Southern California for the distraction they caused with their bare shoulders. Male students at that school then made international news by wearing off the shoulder tops to protest the dress code banning the popular clothing styles for girls.
These dress codes that single out what girls wear are based on faulty thinking that what a woman wears is responsible for the behavior of boys. The idea that a woman changing her clothes will change a man’s behavior is troubling on many levels and has clearly been debunked with research, evidence, facts, and even common sense.
But dress codes can be done better.
Evanston Township high school, in Evanston, Illinois seem to have managed to do better than most. Their newly rewritten dress code is a 3-page document https://www.eths.k12.il.us/Page/1381
The longest section is about enforcement. TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS are given guidance to enforce the dress code consistently and prohibited from enforcing the dress code too severely based on students’ sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion, household income, body type/shape or body maturity. The rules are clear that students who violate the dress code can never be called out publicly, shamed or forced to wear embarrassing garments to cover up their mistakes.
While we do need rules, we have to remember that there will always be kids who push any rules. Throughout history, parents have always disapproved of the clothes their kids wore.
Kids will be kids and it is up to grown-ups to be responsible enough to let them be kids and empower students to learn to manage themselves.