For many years, school dress code has created conflict among students, parents, teachers, and administrators. Growing up in Bryan, I’ve always had to follow the dress code policy, and if I don’t comply I have to fix it or suffer the consequences such as getting sent to SAC or even getting sent home. While I believe there should be some type of dress code for students such as not being allowed to wear a bathing suit to school, gang related clothing, or any article of clothing that promotes the use of drugs and alcohol many constraints within the dress code policy should be eliminated.
The purpose of dress code is supposed to be about professionalism, not control. Students shouldn’t have to be monitored on all the clothing they wear. Some clothing on the dress code policy that is prohibited includes wearing leggings as a main garment, spaghetti strapped shirts, shorts and skirts shorter than mid-thigh, rips in jeans above mid-thigh, and the list goes on.
Students should be able to wear the clothing items listed so they can be comfortable in their learning environment. Leggings should be allowed with a long shirt or with athletic shorts over them. Modest sleeveless clothing should also be allowed as many people in the professional world also wear sleeveless tops or dresses.
Some shirts being put out are stylish and adorable, but students can’t wear them to school because of dress code. Shorts and skirts that are a bit shorter than mid-thigh length should be allowed because no one wants to necessarily wear pants on a burning hot day, which we get a lot in Texas, and because its almost impossible to find shorts and skirts that are long enough and stylish.
As for male students, they aren’t allowed to wear gym shorts, aren’t allowed to sag, and their shirts must be to the waistband. Male students should be allowed to wear gym shorts for their comfort. School in general should focus more on education and less on dress code.
When it comes to grooming in the dress code policy, dyeing hair is currently prohibited.
Students should be allowed to express ourselves in our own style. I understand hair color that is rainbow or any unnatural color such as red blue green, could be distracting to the learning environment, but if it doesn’t cause too much distraction over the first week, students should be allowed to keep their hair color. Piercings on the body other than ears are unacceptable, but if it happens to be a nose piercing, you’d need to cover it which in my opinion, students should be allowed to have any piercings they’d like for their style.
Pulling students out of class and school because of dress code can be more of a distraction because students aren’t able to be in class to learn the material their teacher is giving. Teachers and administrators should leave students in their classrooms and allow them to continue working. Losing that class time could cause damage to the students’ grades and risk falling behind.
Dress code is made because Bryan ISD is prepping students for a professional setting, however students do not need to start in middle school or high school. When we graduate we go to a college setting and we are allowed to wear whatever we’d like so there isn’t a point.
Bryan ISD has made strides to move the dress code forward by allowing shorts to be worn that come to mid-thigh and allowing boys to untuck their shirts and not wear belts.
However, it was not that many years ago that they dropped the requirement for boys to be clean shaven, showing that the policies are lagging behind and still need to be updated to keep pace with modern culture. Even though Bryan ISD has made changes to the dress code policy, there can still be a lot done to make the learning environment a better place.
