Five times out of six high school dress codes are more strict to girls than guys. To help make my point, besides hats, book bags, and baggy pants, the dress code in my high school handbook is centered around girls. I understand that most high schools don't have a dress code but for those that do, most of them are pretty stupid. Yes most of these rules are made for reason but for those one or two rules that are so weird they just make you laugh and ask are you serious THAT is what I'm talking about.
Number 1,
Purse sizes.
Now to an extent this is understandable for those schools that don't allow book bags, because girls can carry more things than boys; but making a size regulation that is so hard to find a purse that size is, well dumb. Its hard to find purses small enough to follow rules and still carry the things that you want to be kept private. Example: lady products. Sorry to break it to you, but girls don't like letting people know its their time of the month.
Number 2,
Shoulder showing shirts/ tank tops.
Fellas we get it, you're teens, but do you really get distracted by a shoulder?? Or the back of someone's neck? This one is just crazy. Some types of tank tops I can understand, but the shirts that are a half inch away from being a t-shirt? I've seen girls that are being threatened to be sent home just because they had shirts on that showed too much of their shoulders.
Number 3,
Dress and shorts length.
This one makes sense and at the same time doesn't. Yes short dresses and shorts will distract guys and girls alike, but when its 100+ degrees outside, some girls don't want to die of heatstroke in blue jeans. Now yes girls can find dresses and shorts that fit criteria, but will they wear it? Or will they just suffer and wear jeans. Trust me most will suffer because not every girl enjoys wearing boy shorts.
Number 4,
Blue jeans.
Yes everyone wears them, and yes they are multiple styles. Jeggings- they are basically skinny jeans, but more comfortable. Girls are getting sent home for wearing them, when boys, who are wearing regular blue jeans, letting them sag and hang off their butts and show their underwear, but do they get sent home because of it, no.
Number 5,
Facial piercings and hair color.
This is for guys and gals alike. Every teen feels the need to express themselves, and some choose to do that through hair dye and piercings. However schools have put a ban on 'extreme hair colors' or 'unprofessional looks'. Well it seems that some schools forget that the first amendment right is freedom of speech, religion, press, and most important EXPRESSION.
It is every American's God given right to express themselves, so how is it that in schools all across the nation, teenagers are being sent home for being 'too much'. For both girls and boys to not be able to have facial piercings and color their hair they are seen as unproffesional. Their parents allow them to do it, so why can't school officials?
Number 6,
Hats.
OK guys this one is all about you. And it makes sense too. Not wearing hats indoors is a sign of respect. And if respect to those in charge isn't enough. Wearing hats all day gives you hat hair, and just saying, it's not a good look. Yes some girls wear things like headbands and flower crowns and don't get in trouble, but in cases other than the occasional beanie, when have you seen a girl dress-coded for wearing a hat?
I know dress codes are enforced for a reason, and no matter how weird the reason may be, as a high school student myself I have to follow them. No matter the absurd rules, clothes are clothes, students can complain all they want, but you have to wear the ones that are designated to school.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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