School Dress Codes Should Be a Thing of the Past—Here’s Why
(Parents.com | Aug. 13, 2024) School dress codes are an ongoing topic of contention between students and school leaders.
On one hand, students want freedom of expression and identity, and on the other hand, schools expect a level of modesty and conformity.
Earlier this year, a high school student in Florida said she was denied entry to her prom for wearing a suit. On TikTok, a teenager shared a post about getting dress-coded at school for no other reason than because of her developed body shape. In Albany, track and field team members were disciplined for wearing sports bras during practice despite 80-degree temperatures. During the pandemic, students complained about teachers enforcing school dress codes even though classes were being held virtually via Zoom.
And these instances of over-policing aren’t isolated—they largely seem to target minority groups. A 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office found that school dress codes more frequently restrict clothing typically worn by girls than boys. The report also found that 80% of predominantly Black schools and over 65% of predominantly Hispanic schools enforce a strict dress code. This is compared to around one-third of predominantly white schools …
… Kal Alston, professor in the School of Education/Women’s & Gender Studies at Syracuse University, thinks that often the adults in schools are very concerned about maintaining order and a sense of discipline. “They are looking for visible signs of social control and the lack thereof. Clothing codes (including uniforms), in a sense, provide easy markers of both conformity and ‘violation.’”
“As someone whose school district banned pants for girls until we launched a protest, I think the dress codes are for the comfort of the adults more than for students.”
While she thinks there should be some sort of dress code in schools, she generally opposes overly prescriptive codes. “I think there is room for safety rules—like closed shoes in shop class. In some very specific contexts, I think schools might need to prohibit gang-related accessories. In general, I think the fewer rules in this area the better.”
Like Richard, Professor Alston agrees that school dress codes often focus on young women as female bodies have been viewed as transgressive and a source of ‘temptation’ in much of Western culture over millennia.
“As someone whose school district banned pants for girls until we launched a protest, I think the dress codes are for the comfort of the adults more than for students,” she says. “Also, at this time in history, gender patrolling makes less and less sense. Pants and skirts should be gender-inclusive, for example.”
“Fears about feminine temptation should not rest on clothing. Insofar as there are actual behavioral disruptions, those should be addressed by inclusive principled rule-making and the setting of community standards by student-teacher-admin discussion,” she continues …