Pros And Cons Of School Dress Codes

Imagine you’re student, a female, let’s say. It’s boiling hot out, and you feel as if you could faint any minute. Your jean shorts and two-finger-thick tank top are soaked in sweat when an administrator tells you that your shorts are less than 2 inches away from your finger-tips, and your tank top is too thin and shows bra straps that “are distracting to male students and teachers, and makes them uncomfortable.” You then are told that you need to change into a pair of sweatpants and a thick, long sleeve shirt that has “Dress code violation” printed on the fabric, for all to see. Many students-the majority of them being women-constantly go through the struggle of choosing what to wear that is suitable for their school dress code. Not only do

This is proven in an article called “6 Advantages and Disadvantages of School Dress Codes” when the author states, “There are people who love dressing up and more comfortable wearing certain clothes with cuts and designs that fit their body build. If school dress codes prevent them from wearing these types of clothing, this might affect their performance in school. Critics of these policies argue that children should be allowed to be in clothes they are comfortable with.” This evidence shows that many schools want to control and disregard the need for students to be comfortable. Also, everyone has a different body type, so it could be possible that some students are incapable of following the dress code, or that they cannot learn and focus properly. According to theatlantic.com, “Many of these protests have criticized the dress codes as sexist in that they unfairly target girls by body-shaming and blaming them for promoting sexual harassment. Documented cases show female students being chastised by school officials, sent home, or barred from attending events like prom.” This is extremely discriminatory because these young women are being sent home from school because of a simple detail that

For example in an article on futureofworking.com the text states, “They [rich and popular students] target these students who either wear shabby or inexpensive clothes and those who they consider odd or with poor taste by bullying them.” This text is giving off the idea that it’s bad for your child to wear what he/she wants because they will get bullied for their poor taste in clothing, or lack of money and designer apparel. The people who support this also think that the bullying will automatically stop out of nowhere if dress codes are enforced because there will be rules to follow. But weren’t there rules in the first place? Can’t the school stop these problems without making the victims of bullying change? Archive.northjersey.com harshly expressed, “‘A lot of the disciplinary problems were for bullying,’ Marinelli said. ‘It's very easy for kids to get picked on for wearing the same clothes over and over or something that's not in style.’” Not only is this a disgusting thing for someone to have said about students who are bullied because of what they wear because they are immediately implying that it’s the victim’s fault that they were getting picked on, and not the person that is responsible for the bullying and their behavior. This quote implies that students must wear clothes that are in style or that are