Many schools in the United States and abroad implement dress codes for their students. Schools cite academics, prevention of discrimination, and safety as reasons to implement dresscodes.

Dress codes may come in many different forms. Private schools often have strict dress codes and require uniforms.

These uniforms often follow a distinct style: skirts, dress shirts, jackets/cardigans for girls and dress pants, dress shirts, ties, and jackets for boys.

However, other schools may implement dress codes which restrict the types of clothing students can wear. For example, schools limit the color of clothes, types of pants, (ex. No leggings), skirt and shorts lengths, necklines, and many more.

Do these strict dress codes/restrictions really help to improve student morale and eliminate discrimination? To an extent, yes. The uniforms definitely help reduce discrimination based on clothing choices.

It may also help lessen the burden on students as they have one less thing to worry about in the hectic mornings before school. So, the dress codes may help reduce discrimination based on what students decide to wear and this seems to be the purpose for implementing these dress codes, but what if these policies became the basis of discrimination based on other factors such as race or sex?

Tori Hwang, a junior from Marymount High School and Christina Park, a junior from the California Academy of Math and Science have expressed their opinions and concerns about this issue.

Tori says that she thinks “strict dress code rules should not be implemented in schools because these regulations mostly apply to girls, the reason being that everybody would get distracted by their revealing skin.”

The reason being that there should not be a reason for girls to conform to these ideals since it is not their fault. On the topic of discrimination and how it relates to these dress codes she says that “getting rid of dress code rules would not completely eliminate discrimination, but it would definitely be a step closer to doing the right thing.”

Christina has a similar opinion saying that, “implementing dress codes can be seen as necessary initially but when guidelines become more and more specific, it seems like schools are targeting certain groups.”

She also provides a possible solution to this issue by suggesting that “having a state standard or some way to unify it could eliminate the subjectivity of dress codes” and it could address the “‘unnecessarily strict’” dress codes in some areas. Explicitly addressing the possible targets of these rules, she says that they “tie to racial and sexual discrimination as some groups are subject to more criticism than others.”

<Sophia Lee / Buford HS 10th Grade>