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The dress code has impacted so many students’ high school experience in a negative way. Since the start of the 2023-2024 school year, countless students—including myself—have been dress-coded. Each of those students has expressed their distaste for the dress code, with it being targeted specifically towards female students.
Due to the unfairness of the dress code, female students have become afraid to express themselves for fear of being dress-coded. Clothing is a large part of how people choose to present themselves and with the dress code limiting that, it makes them afraid to do so. The dress code has been manipulated into something that limits creativity in the school environment.
A large reason behind people getting dress-coded is that their clothing is “too distracting.” Someone’s stomach showing while they’re wearing a crop top or their shoulders being out while wearing a tank top on a hot summer day is not distracting at all. Each time a student is dress-coded, they get distracted from their schoolwork which in effect, leads to them falling behind. They become frustrated with the situation, making them less focused on their work. I can guarantee that someone wearing a crop top does not affect the learning environment; however, dress coding that student does.
The dress code is also largely based on their bodies. If two students wear the same shirt but have different body types, chances are that one is more likely to be dress-coded than the other for things that they simply can’t control. Determining whether or not to dress code someone based on their body is just objectifying them. It’s not appropriate to objectify female students through the dress code.
Students like Katherine Peck ’25 have decided to take action against it. Peck is one of the many women who feel as if the school is creating a hostile environment, which inspired her to start a petition to change the dress code and make it less targeted towards women. The petition has gained over 200 signatures, a number still growing more and more each day. Hopefully, the school district will see the petition, listen to students’ voices and change the dress code. Changing the dress code is a vital part of improving hundreds of students’ experiences and making them feel less objectified.
