school dress codes

[sanddrag]

I think the tucked in shirt thing is too much. I almost never wear a tucked in shirt. I hate it. My HS make use wear plain color collared shirts with no large logos or printing. No jeans or cordoroy. Cargo shorts and pants were acceptable, but not excessively baggy. They did not require the shirt to be tucked in.


I preferred this dress code much better than not having one where everyone would be wearing Sean John jeans (twice the size they should be too) and a white T shirt if there was no dress code.

[xzvrw2]

See what people dont under stand is that we had a dress code. It was just never enforced.

[spears312]

The schools in my county have always had a loose dress code, restraining of corase anything suggestive and inappropriate. This year they made things more strict like requiring girls shorts to be longer, no sleeveless shirts for the guys, and no low pants, etc. Nothing that really effects me, since I wear jeans and polos half the time (and my heatwave stuff the other half it would seem some weeks ). I just hope I can get through my senior year (next year) without uniforms, because I had to wear them from like, Kindergarten to 8th grade, and I really don't want to go back .

[dubious elise]

Sounds just like grade school to me! I went to a parochial school from Kindergarten through 8th grade where, like your high school, there were few, if any, restrictions as to what we could wear. Just before 4th grade began, we too had a "dress code" sicced on us. Naturally, the students were resistant, especially the junior high kids. It actually started out surprisingly lax; khaki's and navy pants all the time with plaid dresses/skirts for girls and shorts in the early fall. We got 4 colors of shirts (red, white, navy, and green) whether they were polos, buttondowns, turtlenecks, or sweaters. We were also promised at least 1 "out of uniform day" per month.

That all went down the tubes as our school realized that things they hadn't expected (lowrise pants, JNCO-like khakis, bell bottomed khakis, cargo pants, trashy Abercrombie-esque "fatigued" pants, etc) also fell quite nicely into their own categories. Brand-related disputes would still break out in the junior high when kids were picked on for wearing Land's End uniforms vs. something pieced together from American Eagle and Banana Republic. As children's clothing became more grunge-like and risque (read: midriff tops for 8 year olds, shredded jeans, etc), our out of uniform days were restricted to a student's own birthday and the occasional holiday (yes, the Friday before a big Packers game was a holiday, as long as you wore something green or gold...).

Now, the students are restricted to wearing only what is sold by a specific uniform company to keep things totally and completely fair. I never really had a problem with the concept of uniforms. There was just something about wearing a 100% polyester shirt/pants combo on the bus ride home on that one abnormally hot spring day that never sat well with me.

Either way, aside from the fact that it ususally just adds up to be another, oftentimes unnecessary, expense for a lot of families, if your school is having such problems with attire disputes, this is an option that has been shown to work in many instances. I'd say give it a chance.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I've never been in a situation with a strict dress code like that, but my school enforces very strictly shirts that show any cleavage, and shirts with inappropriate advertising of any sort.

Many teachers have the "labcoat". It's a really ugly lab jacket that you have to put on if they don't approve of what you're wearing. When the teacher whose 1st and 5th hour classes disect pigs brings up the concept, students obey.

I personally don't really float either way. I think there's a lot more to a school or a person than what they wear, and while individualism in clothing is important, you are honestly only in school for maybe 7 hours or 9 or 10 with ECs. Deal with it, everyone is doing it in your school. You'll have to do it when you're in the working world, just like David said.

[JoeXIII'007]

Hmmm... that dress code of xzvrw2's school is indeed a bit strict. I wouldn't like it at all. BUT, I would like to see what would happen if a dress code like that was enforced at my school for just one year. Heh heh heh That'd be interesting. Currently though, we've had a great principal who has actually enforced the exisiting dress code, and it has worked really REALLY well. Has anyone in the Pontiac district contacted the board or some section of the school to try and work something out?

[Bcahn836]

Personally I don't think a school has the authority to tell its students what they can or cannot wear, and make them only wear uniforms. I can see restricting a student from wearing any thing offensive, too "showing" or some thing like that but to tell a student they can't wear jeans or something like that is just lunacy.
I remember one year my school was trying to pull the whole uniform thing a few weeks before school started and it never worked so they made it optional for the students, now some followed the suggested guide lines but much of the school didn't and the ones who wore the uniform didn't get laughed at too much.
But that is just my opinion. . .

[wilshire]

I am not so sure they can pull that strict of a uniform policy at a public school. Public schools are supposedly for the public. Now they have to pay even more money to buy appropriate attire? that in my opinion is ridculous for a public school.
I agree with all of my school policies with no offensive content/drug display/showing of cleavage for shirts pants skirts or shorts. and girls can have shorts and or skirts being no higher than fingertip length. I used to go to a Catholic shool where the basic attire you were allowed to where was blue shorts or blue pants with a white collared shirt with a navy blue sweatshirt if you felt like it. Girls could where the navy blue shorts or a green plaid skirt with a white collared shirt.
anyways dress has neverbeen an issue with me because I always wear shorts or jeans with a polo. You can never go wrong with the polo

[Bharat Nain]

Originally Posted by dubious elise

Either way, aside from the fact that it ususally just adds up to be another, oftentimes unnecessary, expense for a lot of families, if your school is having such problems with attire disputes, this is an option that has been shown to work in many instances. I'd say give it a chance.

Actually, uniforms might actually save money for some. Instead of spending money on too many sets of clothes for school, they will be limited. As far as my view goes on uniforms, I am not one who would enjoy wearing a uniform to school everyday. I feel the students should be given some freedom as far as what they want to wear. Ofcourse I understand the rules they impose.

[mechanicalbrain]

School uniforms are very often custom made for schools and as i understand it very pricey. I wonder about the actual benefit to school uniforms. For example in my school their really isnt any such thing as gang violence. Before you say that its that i come from a "good" neighborhood ide like to say i also went to school in DC (not the good part) and we didn't really see any gang violence in school their either. The little that was present deffinitely wouldn't be stopped by clothing. It reminds me of a popular quote by Murphy "It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious". I hate to say it but you can remove all the visual hate you want but kids will keep on finding new ways to hate (yeah i know im pretty pesimistic just calling on experience). Its sad to see but to me school uniforms are like metal detectors at airports kind of pointless.

[sanddrag]

After seeing the video posted earlier in this thread, I wish there was a metal detector in ever door anyone walked through in any place. That was just plain scary. That many guns, and all different kinds and sizes, and you'd never know until it was too late.

[mechanicalbrain]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

After seeing the video posted earlier in this thread, I wish there was a metal detector in ever door anyone walked through in any place. That was just plain scary. That many guns, and all different kinds and sizes, and you'd never know until it was too late.

Yeah i still can't tell if that was a joke or something seriously put together by parents. Sanddrag, every time you see a guy walking funny your going to wonder whether the guy has a rifle in his pants. However if you insist on security you can always get a MET-1 metal detector ( take a look) for only $149!

[looneylin]

Our dress code is sooo strict! I go to an All Girls Catholic school so we have our uniforms n stuff. But recently they've gotten soo strict that the school administration yells at us for having white socks with a lil color on the rim of it!

It's like we're anarchists if we have a lil picture of a butterfly on our socks! lol

[c-squared_2006]

It's interesting what everyone has to say on the school dress codes. I liked what KarenH remarked, it gave another perspective on things.

Personally, my high school has been a bit lose with dress codes. I think that clothing should not define the individual but rather the other way around, but the clothing shouldn't be too risky. I can see where the arguement that school dress codes do hinder creativity came from, however when I'm able to tell the color of someone's under clothing, it's a bit disturbing.

[Amanda Morrison]

My former high school (the one that AndrewMorrison attends now) is pretty renowned for overbearing administration, especially with students' appearances. Back when I was still in the middle school there, I can still remember seeing the principal's office overflowing with HS kids, sitting on the floor, out in the hallways, everywhere - all of them with dyed, sprayed, spiked, or mohawked hair. MTV profiled us back in the day as a result. (Eventually, after kids would spray their hair before school to get out of class and the school got a lot of bad publicity, 'creative hair' was allowed but not encouraged.)

I can't say that I was ever targeted, and I was an... interesting and creative dresser for many years. Soon after I left, the school banned the color pink, fearing it was a gang color. Most recently, hooded sweatshirts were not allowed. The students had very little warning, and had the sweatshirts and sweaters taken away from them before they were allowed to proceed to class. The school confiscated them, telling parents they could come pick them up or the students could reclaim them at the end of the school year.

A few students and parents protested. Overall, it did little good and the rule stayed. The school's air conditioning is falling apart, so many classrooms without windows are very cold, others are very hot. A few students complained of being cold when winter came. Again, it did nothing and the administration kept the same attitude.

When I heard about this, I was pretty ticked, knowing the track record of the school. But my logic is this - I no longer attend the high school, and if enough of an outcry was heard about the new restrictions, the administration would probably take another look at the situation. Instead, when only a few spoke out, it appeared to the school that the rule was accepted by most of the students and parents.

Moral of the story: If you want something, fight for it.