Persuasive Essay On Dress Code

Have there been a numerous number of dress code violations at your school lately? Is it getting old having to repeat the same things to students over and over again? Are they not listening even after they have been punished? Are they starting to get angry? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then consider making some changes to benefit the school and everyone in it. The easiest way to reduce these violations would be with uniforms. The origin of uniforms has been associated with a shooting in Baltimore in 1986, in which a public school student was injured in a fight over a pair of sunglasses ("Background of the Issue," n.d., para. 7). Since then they have become a very common occurrence in schools all over the United States, as dress code problems happen in a numerous amount of institutions. More specifically, if we narrow down and focus on our own area and the dress code problems happening in our local schools, we can clearly see that the Zanesville High School dress code is one of many that is greatly flawed and the school board needs to implement a uniform policy to reduce office disciplinary referrals, address bullying, and create a positive culture in the school environment.

Society is made up of different body types and uniforms are just that, uniform. Wearing something that does not fit right is extremely uncomfortable and distracting. If a student sitting in the classroom is trying to pay attention to a lesson, but has to constantly adjust their clothing in a worthless attempt to get comfortable, this can be extremely disruptive to the class as a whole because the teacher has to periodically remind the student to stop fidgeting and pay attention. The drawing of this attention to the student and their clothing can be detrimental to their self-confidence, and make them a target for other students to make fun of them. “The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposes uniforms on the grounds that they violate students’ rights to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.” (“School Uniforms”). How a student dresses will not directly improve their grades, and making them wear a uniform will curb their expression of individuality. Having to alter a uniform to fit body type can get extremely expensive.

Uniforms violate our first amendment. It doesn’t let students be themselves in the way they want to dress. There are pros about having uniform, but there are more cons because clothes don’t break rules. Students should not be required to wear school uniform.

As the temperature rises, so do hemlines and the suspension rate. Students get suspended for violating school dress codes by wearing outfits that ‘show too much skin.’ One can argue that revealing clothing is distracting, but some families and students agree that school dress code implementations end up just shaming girls. Dress codes, the epitome of high school, teach girls to act ashamed, not modest. According to most school boards that come up with the dress code, the outfits young women wear come across as too distracting for their peers, especially men, and make it unable for women to be viewed by the public with dignity and respect. Everyday, school dress codes target females—especially females that are more developed.

First of all, mandatory school uniforms deny students rights, stated in the U.S constitution. In the first Amendment, it states, “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech. Recently, a student at Riverside Middle School, wore a pink shirt with a message on it that stated, “ #TeamTanya” He was spreading awareness for his mother, who had breast cancer. With school uniforms, this student would not be able to spread awareness for his mother. Not only it would be against what the U.S.A. stands for, it would be uncivilized and send a bad message to other countries around the world.

It is of no possible argument that some of the most valuable and lasting ideas of life and the world around us are taught and learned at school. Hard work does you well. Cheaters never prosper. Education is the key to success. Girls bodies are a distraction and objects to be inevitably sexualized and harassed. This may sound over exaggerated, but this is the message beings sent to millions of students near and far by the sexist, self-esteem demolishing, unfocused dress codes in schools today. This said, dress codes in schools create a negative environment, putting the focus on the wrong things and ideas, both promoting rape culture and a strong sense of sexism.

School uniforms also serve little to no purpose in benefiting the education of children around America. A uniform does not help a student learn things that they need to know. A uniform does not help a student study, take notes, or make flash cards. They bring no educational value to the table of learning. According to many educators and experts, “Uniforms do not improve academics, behavioral and social outcomes, or reduce discrimination or crime” (Farrell). So if a uniform cannot help a student increase their knowledge or grow as a person, why make students wear them?

Dress code is a controversial subject in a lot of schools. Dress code is a set of rules put into place to promote school safety and encourage a positive learning atmosphere where students are not distracted by their peers’ outfit choices (Daniels). This set of rules allegedly is put into place to stop the sexualizing of women by keeping them from wearing “suggestive clothing,” but what is suggestive clothing? Who defines what clothes are seen as “suggestive?” Dress code does more harm than good for students, therefore it should not be present in public schools.

Everyone knows what getting dress-coded is but why does it happen? Enforcing dress codes is a way to maintain a professional learning environment, however, dress codes desperately need to be updated constantly in order to work. Current dress codes are improperly enforced, as well as improperly targeted toward women. The issue should not be that a woman's shoulder is distracting, the issue is that a boy “cannot learn” because he cannot keep himself under control when presented with the sight of skin. In addition, dress codes teach women that it is their fault when men sexualize them, therefore increasing the idea in rape culture that it is the victim's fault and that "Boys will be boys." The way that dress codes are currently enforced is unfair, sexist, and unjust.

Imagine a high school that is filled with reckless, hormone-crazed teenagers that have no restrictions on how they should dress. Their “Outfits of the Day” are more of a concern than what they learn in school. Their clothing choices becomes an interruption to their education. This is the mindset of teenagers of schools that do not have any dress code implementation.

Students struggle throughout high school and go through a great deal of stress. Whether it be making friends, or working hard to pass a difficult class. To make things more pressuring, they are not allowed to wear what they want. The administration made the decision that it is best to suspend a student for their choice in clothing. If they go against the rule of dress code, there will be serious consequences. What students wear should not affect their class work. If a student gets sent home for their outfit, it is affecting their grades and attendance. Punishment disrupts the students education more than what they are wearing. High school students should feel free to embrace their individuality without being pressured by dress codes; therefore, it should be eliminated from all schools indefinitely.

The first major reason for not wearing school uniforms is, it forces a student to conceal his or her individuality. To many people, it appears that the school system is trying to strip away this individuality on purpose, but now is the time that the school should be embracing it and helping the student become the person they are meant to become. “According to opponents of uniforms, even preschoolers should have input into their wardrobe, and the need to encourage personality, confidence, and independence grows more important as the student becomes older” (Chen). Because of this lack of self-expression, students feel their first amendment is being violated and most people would agree, which causes the school to look bad. Another way of looking at it is they are forcing students to become on mold, or one certain way of being. However, the problem with making them one is, no matter how they look they will still have their own individual personality traits that will come out in the end. If forced to wear the uniforms, many students would express these traits by adding things to their uniform such as brightly colored gems for girls and different

Everyday throughout the halls of Mckinney Boyd High School, females walk nervously and briskly out of fear of being dress coded. Comparatively males walk comfortably and confident while wearing the clothes that please them. Not only Mckinney Isd but schools and districts across the nation view girls as objects and puts blame on their own god given body parts and identify them as a “distraction, Mckinney Isd dress code is very harsh and undermines young women's confidence and needs to be revised tremendously.

It does not matter where in the world people go, dress code is different but effective in each country, state, and city. In a state like Ohio, people see many different forms of these regulations. At Liberty-Benton High School, students are not allowed to show their shoulders, wear any ripped jeans, wear leggings without their backside covered, and other dress codes that are directed towards females. If a person would travel fifteen minutes southwest, they would come upon another school, Cory Rawson High School. They have many of the same dress codes there except for a few. When they wear leggings, the shirt has to come mid thigh and not just cover their backside. They are permitted to wear ripped jeans there and cold shoulder shirts that would show their shoulders (Waltz). Lastly, if a person would again travel back towards Liberty Benton High School, in the Findlay district, they would stumble upon Findlay High School. They have absolutely no limits there. They can wear leggings, crop tops, ripped jeans, cold shoulder shirts, tank tops, anything imaginable. If people there can get the same education level as Liberty Benton and Cory Rawson but still wear these so called “promiscuous” clothing items, how is it reasonable to have such diverse dress codes? All of these issues are directed towards females, but yet at different schools it has changed for some reason. How is it that based on where a person lives in the county or city depends on what their dress code is? Dress

When moving from California to Texas, I was fortunate enough to still be in a great public school system, but I was not lucky enough to escape an excessively strict dress code.  While many people in private schools have complete uniforms to implement equality, being confined through a severe dresscode not only impaired my freedom of expression, but also the ability to grow into myself.   As an adult, I am expected to make choices for myself, present myself in a certain way, and how important I am depends on how unique I am.  Spending some of the most impressionable years of my life in a high school priding itself in a firm dress code, I feel as though it held me back from the experience I needed to be a confident adult.  Now that I’m in