Dress Code In Public Schools

One main reason public schools have uniforms / dress code is because in 1996, President Clinton allowed the school uniform movement and said, “If it means teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms.” This gave schools the power to control the

Dress codes are not helping schools like they are meant to do; they are actually harming students in the school. Dress codes shame students and make them insecure about their bodies. They also disrupt precious class time that is vital to students. Buying clothes to fit the school dress code is costlier than some families can afford. Not only are dress codes stifling, but they are also unfair toward specific body types and different genders. Dress codes also decrease a student’s ability to be different from all of their peers in the way they dress. Schools should not have dress codes because they are sexist, unfair and disrupt class time.

Dress code is put into place to keep students from being bullied for how they dress and how some people may treat them different depending on what they wear. There is a lot of evidence that show students losing time in the class room because they are too worried about there personal apparel. David Brunsma, a sociologist who wrote Uniforms in Public Schools: A Decade of Research and Debate in 2005, says,

Is there anything more embarrassing than being dress coded at school? Enforcing a dress code among children is unfair because it not only discriminates against people but it destroys someone’s whole day. Dress codes and school uniforms are meant to increase student achievement and make everyone equal but instead it only hurts people. Most school dress codes are unnecessary and are sexist. Enforcing dress codes is suppose to boost student achievement but instead is racist, sexist and unnecessary. Schools should take into consideration their student 's feelings before they establish rules for dressing.

High school is a vital time in a child’s life to discover who they are as an individual; expressing themselves through clothes is part of this process. If a student is required to wear a uniform everyday, that would create a lack of self expression. The First Amendment states that every human being in the United States is entitled to express themselves (Anderson). When students are forced to wear

The controversy about dress codes asks an important question: are dress codes targeting girls and transgender students? Several sites including:https://www.adl.org/education/resources/tools-and-strategies/table-talk/what's-fair-and-unfair-about-student-dress-codes, stated that when they spoke to girls they said they feel shamed and judged by dress codes. Are dress codes limiting students creativity. Should these girls really feel harassed men and boys at their school?

Between 2009 and 2010 19% of schools required uniforms and 57% of schools enforce a strict dress code. Kids who follow a strict dress-code policy at school are limited in expression. Many schools think by having strict dress-codes are safer and keep the focus on education, but enforcing a strict dress-code many times place the focus of school on clothing and rules, rather than education. Schools should not have dress codes because they become gender bias, they stunt the growth of individuality, and generally cost more.

School dress codes are the most enforcing and restrictive policy out of all the school policies. I know everyone hates and don’t understand why we need dress codes. Sometimes dress codes can be ridiculous and nonsense. I’m on the same page as them. Dress codes informs high school students what we can wear and cannot wear.

These dress codes only create problems for students. Fashion, style and kids taste in clothing is changing every day. Limiting a student's freedom of expression proves to be detrimental to students mental health and development. These changes in style should not dictate whether a student should be allowed in school wearing such attire. Detentions and suspensions are not the answer to breaches of dress codes. Allowing kids freedom of expression through clothing will make students happier and more self confident in how they act and what they do. The sooner kids find confidence in what they do, the better. It is high time for schools to revise these dress codes to be more suitable for kids of

Dress codes has been apart of the educational system for many years. Administrators have struggled to find effective ways to deal with discipline problems. The creation of the dress codes has been a common solution for many educational system to help decrease the number of disciplinary issues that are dealt with on a daily basis. Things such as gang activity, bullying, increasing violence can all be traced to the way people in school’s dress. The dress code policy is considered to be a "fix all" solution in many public schools, but has failed to resolve the big issues. Dress codes should not be instituted to fix a particular problem, but should be looked at to help overall school reform. This why most private schools have a particular uniform that students must wear every single day. To try and resolve the issue. However, a school uniform policy does not carry enough weight that produces a safe learning environment or helps students achieve their goals at being successful. A student's role is to come into school everyday to learn, without having to worry about gang activities, being bullying or having someone start a fight with them because they are wearing a particular color.

Wearing school uniforms improves unity of spirit and school pride that could benefit the school and community. School uniforms can also keep students safe and it is easier to identify intruders on school grounds. Long Beach Unified School District stated that with the help of school uniforms and dress codes the number of disciplinary problems in their students has decreased. Some schools may not have school uniforms but have mandatory dress codes that prohibit certain clothing to be worn. This could include attire that reveals too much of the body, hats, printing that advertises or promotes alcohol, drugs or inappropriate

Having the freedom to dress one’s self is extremely important, as it allows students to have individuality, as well as allowing them their rights as a student. "Our biggest problem with a school uniform policy is the anti-individuality message it sends." (School Uniforms Stifle Freedom of Expression, School Policies, 2008) Not allowing students to dress

In all schools over the United States students are fighting over clothing. Some children have no respect for themselves when it comes to what they are wearing. They dress like it is a night club or like they are out on a nice sunny day at the beach. This is not appealing to everyone. This is one reason why many schools have gone to school dress codes or uniforms. Dress codes help prevent fighting, many unwanted distraction, and embarrassing moments for students. Uniforms also help decrease the number of thieves in school. In Long Beach, California the school district has made it mandatory for all kids in k-8 grade to wear school dress codes. Fifty-six

"I just feel like [the dress code] needs to be explained better, like they need to do a better job of presenting it to us, instead of just saying we can wear crew necks and then taking us out of class if we wear our crew necks," (Tori Taylor). This quote is a perfect example of how dress codes are not properly executed in schools all across America. Varying depending on school, dress codes can be confusing and extremely hard to navigate. Girls all over the country have been forced to take time out of their day to change or even leave the school, because of shirts they’ve worn a thousand times before. If there is a shirt that supposedly breaks dress code, a girl should be reprimanded every single time she wears it, right? Wrong. This is because

Uniforms are traditionally favored in private schools, but they are being introduced into more and more United States public schools everyday. During the 2013-2014 school year, one in five public schools in the United States required students to wear uniforms to school everyday. This went up from one in eight schools requiring them in the 2003-2004 school year. ("Background of the Issue," n.d., para. 1). The percentage of schools that require them has increased from thirteen percent during the 2003-2004 school year, to nineteen percent in the 2011-2012 school year ("Background of the Issue," n.d., para. 18). The process of having to discipline a student because they violated the dress code is a process that nobody, student, teacher, or parent, likes to go through. Multiple students cannot drive; so when they disregard the school 's dress code, their parents have to pause whatever