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Where should schools set dress code limits?





By MARTHA IRVINE
PUBLISHED: APRIL 27, 2014

EVANSTON, Ill. � They're called leggings � popular fashion items that are tight-fitting pants to some, and glorified tights to others.

Younger girls often wear them as pants with little fuss. But as those same girls approach middle school, leggings have become a clothing accessory that's increasingly controversial � and seemingly, the favorite new target of the school dress code.

Some schools have banned leggings outright. Others have set limits. Haven Middle School in Evanston, just north of Chicago, took what turned out to be a contentious stand: If you wear leggings, you need to have a shirt or skirt over them that reaches at least down to your fingertips.

In other words, girls need to cover their behinds.

It might seem a reasonable enough request at a time when school dress codes � and even school uniforms � are common and often supported by teachers and administrators who frequently complain about students who push the limits of good taste, and the parents who let them (and may even push those limits themselves).

But how far is too far? And do schools sometimes go too far in pushing back?

Judges have tended to side with schools when safety is a concern. For example, a federal court agreed with a school district in Morgan Hill, Calif., after some high school students were told not to wear American flag T-shirts on the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo in 2010. The worry was that the shirts would incite conflict with the school's many Hispanic students.

When safety isn't at issue, says Perry Zirkel, a professor of education and law at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, the courts tend to throw the cases back to the schools and parents, so they can come up with solutions together.

A lot of confusion

It's not always easy, since many people have a different notion of what's appropriate and what's not � and what's distracting, and what's not.

At Haven Middle School, there has been a lot of confusion. Just a few weeks ago, the school's own website said leggings were banned, when apparently they were not, school officials now say. Then there was the matter of yoga pants, which are tight like leggings, but flared at the bottom. Did the fingertip rule also apply to those types of pants, especially when no one could tell the difference if they were tucked into boots, which is also a popular style among teens?

The discussions at school meetings have sometimes bordered on silly. But few disagree that there are serious issues at hand here � among them, whether girls are being shamed and unnecessarily embarrassed at a time when they're already starting to feel more aware of their changing bodies.

Clearly frustrated with the debate, Haven Middle School teachers posted this statement on the school's website to explain the reasoning behind the leggings policy: �We believe, through years of experience and professionalism, that it is essential to our school's climate that we set a standard of expectation and decorum.�

They denied that they acted because leggings distract boys, as has been alleged by some parents.

�The notion that girls' clothing affects the way boys learn is not, and never will be, our message,� the statement said.

However, parents who've attended school meetings, and students who dislike the policy, seem most troubled by an inconsistency in enforcement. They claim that some girls are �dress-coded� more than others, perhaps because they are more physically developed. They say, for example, that they have heard comments like, �If you were smaller, you could wear this and it would be fine.�

�I've also seen skinny, smaller girls walking around in leggings every week and never, ever getting caught for it,� says Kate Green, a seventh-grader at Haven who concedes that she probably fits that category herself. She's had warnings, she said, but never more than that, when other girls have had to put their gym shorts over their outfits if they're in dress code violation.

Parents Kevin and Juliet Bond wrote an open letter to the district after their 13-year-old daughter Lilly sensed unfairness and asked them to address it.

�It's not like these girls are dressing up like street corner gals, right? I mean, it's sweatshirts and comfy pants,� says Juliet Bond, an author and professor of women's studies at a Chicago liberal arts college.

Members of the advisory board say the dress code policy will be reviewed for the next school year. The key, school board member Suni Kartha said, would be to come up with a clear, consistent policy with as little �judgment� as possible.

�I don't think anybody ever had the intention for the policy to ever shame any of the students, but I understand that that's the effect,� Kartha said.

Same playing field

There are those who argue that the best way to handle the dress code dilemma is to mandate uniforms, such as the blue pants and white shirts worn by Chicago Public Schools students.

�It puts everyone on the same playing field when they're at school,� says Kitty Rotella, principal of St. Mark's Episcopal School, a private school for preschool through eighth grade in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

When her students have the occasional out-of-uniform day, she says, she feels like they're more distracted, even if there's no attire she deems inappropriate.

But others question the value of any strict codes.

Haley Bocanegra, a 17-year-old junior who attends high school in Riverside, Ill., sometimes dressing like a boy, or wearing wigs and goggles for a �Steampunk� outfit, or a Japanese anime costume.

She says teachers usually have a harder time with it than her classmates.

�I'm paying attention in class. So why are you making a big deal about it?� the honors student asks, showing them the student handbook to prove she's not violating the code.

Nancy Hablutzel, a professor of education at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, says consistency is important.

�But,� she said, �so is common sense.�

Dang

I think it's a parents responsibility to monitor what their kids wear. Who would let a teenage daughter out of the house like that ?
I also think the school needs some guidelines. Obviously those girls parents have no common sense.

I'm against. Same as with the workplace.

Would you look at those two hotties.....WOW! Bring it! Cell phones and leggings and hip-huggers and thongs beat the heck out of an Algebra book and all day computer time.

Let's make school interesting and stimulating.

This is the age of internet porn and Miley Cyrus.

To give you an idea of the mindset, a major rule at school dances anymore is absolutely no dancing with your hands on the floor

OF COURSE dress codes are necessary.

At least for sexually suggestive or gang-related styles. OTOH "punk" from back in the days never bothered me much, I found many of the guys in mohawks to be among the most intelligent and introspective of my students.

School uniforms? They do no harm but can be modified or worn in so many sexually suggestive ways there ain't much point over a reasonable dress code IMHO.

JMHO,
Birdwatcher

We are for it. Makes clothes shopping easy. First day of school for him here.

I am all for it---big time.

I have 2 kids in high school and thank god for the uniforms. No fighting with them what's appropriate and what's not. There are days they can wear jeans and their class t-shirts, but most days it's the uniform. And on formal dress days, it's a blazer and tie for the boys and sweater vests for the girls. As for modifying the uniforms in a suggestive manner, we don't have that here. The teachers keep a close eye on this and will call down any student who gets out of line.

G23

That's cool - I wish I could get MY kid into Hogwarts...

We have two boys in a private Catholic middle school. I love the fact that they have a dress code. No drama.

I have no problem with dress codes.

I have even less of a problem with 18 yo's with assess like that. (I hope they are 18)

The research shows students do better with uniforms, but also in classes segregated by gender.

I have no problem with either. Seems to me that it offers kids an opportunity to stay kids a little longer. I'd say innocent, but I'm not that naive....

Here is the case that brought down the school dress code. Tinker vs the Des Moines School district. Another case the Supremes fubar'd beyond belief. kwg

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html

I'm not a big fan of uniforms. However I have no problem with a strict dress code. If you have a decent job more likely than not there's some kind od dress code even tho 100% of the people ever need to be reminded of it even if that includes just your boss you can't wear that to work.

I had a strict dress code in college, a public university. Go figure. Only as far back as the 90's we had to wear long pants, boots, no shoes/open toes, and shirts had to be tucked in, and no hats indoors. This was for the college I attended within the university.

They started school uniforms here several years ago. The main reason they pushed for it was because they said they didn't watch rich kids wearing really nice clothes compared to poor kids not wearing nice clothes and kids known who had money and who didn't. I wanted to tell them kids will know who has money and who doesn't even if you send them to school all naked.

Nothing wrong with the gal on the right , her thong color matches.

School uniforms helps to force the focus to be on performance,
not fashion.

Problem according to my school teacher wife is, girls leave home appropriately dressed. Once they arrive at school they hit the girls room and strip down to the outrageous outfits. The wife's dress code is pretty simple "no cracks", no cleavage front or rear allowed in her classroom.

unfairness, as perceived by a freaking 13 year old kid? The parents responding, and going to the school district over it? That is certainly one of the problems here.

I'd like to see uniforms on all school kids. Stops so many issues dead in their tracks.

dress code, even better uniforms, stop a lot of problems.