School Dress Codes: Good or Restraining?

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School Dress Codes Final Paper
As the society that we live in today grows and becomes more accepting of the different ways people act, groom, and dress, we look to expand the policies we have in place in our schools regarding the ways our students are allowed to present themselves in the classroom. Each different school has their own dress code that they expect their students to follow. Most private schools require that students wear a uniform to school they also have regulations on what type of clothes is acceptable attire to wear to school. In addition to clothes, schools also have rules on how students are allowed to wear their hair and makeup (PBS, 1999). In recent years there has been a growing argument about these dress codes and the actual purpose the dress codes serve. For something that shouldn’t be that great of an issue it has been causing problems throughout America and making headlines in newspapers and internet news pages consistently over the past several years. The main intent of dress codes or uniform policies is to protect the students and faculty from dangers like weapons being snuck into schools underneath things such as trench coats or baggy clothes like we saw in the 1999 Columbine shooting (CNN, 2014). According to the article Public School Dress Codes: The Constitutional Debate, over 135,000 guns are brought into schools every day throughout our country (Wilson, 1998). The other intention is to have the school maintain an educational environment. In order to do this some schools require that no students wear gang-affiliated colors and require that the female’s clothes aren’t too revealing, like mini skirts. However there is not actual proof that dress codes reduce violence in schools or help with the acade...

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...of School Health. p. 32.
Nicksa, S. (2014). JuvDelin14+theory.ppt: CJ315-A [PowerPoint slides]. Chester, Pennsylvania: Widener University.
PBS. (1999, 10 12). School uniforms. (PBS) Retrieved 05 01, 2014, from PBS Newshour Extra: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/1999/10/school-uniforms/
Rodriguez, M. (2014, 03 24). Act of compassion violates school dress code policy. (9 News) Retrieved 05 01, 2014, from 9 News: http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2014/03/24/act-of-compassion-violates-schoold-dress-code-policy/6853131/
Sanchez, J. E., Yoxsimer, A., & Hill, G. C. (2012). Uniforms in the middle school: Student opinions, discipline data, and school police data. Journal of school violence, 11(4), 345-356. doi:10.1080/15388220.2012.706873
Wilson, A. (1998). Public school dress codes: The constitutional debate. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, (1), 147.

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