Dress codes are an essential part of student life and it’s quite typical for schools to have them, including our very own Delta High School. The dress code policy at Delta High School is a controversial topic among the student body, with one side indicating that the dress code seems to only target female students while the other half says the dress code is just fine as is. On November 6, students filled out a survey regarding their personal opinions on the Delta High School dress code, in which giving their name was optional.
“I feel like the standards of the dress code are understandable, but I feel like the way it’s enforced is definitely unfair to women. I feel like because there are more women-specific standards, they get called out more even though the same amount of men break the dress code,” said an anonymous student.
Many students within the survey stated that the dress code isn’t being enforced properly, and only certain students are being targeted for dress code violations. “First of all, I don’t understand why guys are allowed to participate in gym-related classes totally shirtless, but the second a woman wears a shirt that exposes an inch of her belly, she gets in trouble. Second, women that are blessed with more skin/curves (bigger boobs, butt, thighs, stomach, etc.) are bound to get punished more frequently than another that is wearing the same exact thing. Lastly, just because you’re power-hungry, it doesn’t make it fair to run around dress-coding everyone. Just the other day, my friend got dress-coded for wearing pajama pants, of all things. The list of rules are fine but the way they are enforced are unfair,” said Jazmyne Lynd ‘24.
According to the 2023 Delta High School Student Handbook: “Final Judgment of student dress is left to the school administration’s discretion.” One particular student found this rule in the policy to be a loophole for administration to be more controlling on student dress. “You have to be careful with discretion clauses, they should never side on making a punishment happen, only for making an exception to a punishment,” said Andrew Priestley.
However, other students feel as if the dress code is completely fair and that school should be treated as a professional work setting. ”School is a place to learn, to allow people to prepare for adult life, college or not. A dress code shows what is acceptable in a professional, or even just day-to-day scene. There are no rules for how to dress outside of professional activities (school), but when you are working (school learning) professionalism/semi-professionalism has to be kept, and wearing revealing clothes, suggestive clothes, and clothes that include inappropriate logos (drugs+alcohol) does not fall into that category or professionalism/semiprofesionales. Think of what you would wear to a job to keep that job, (the) same concept should be applied to school,” said an anonymous student. Although dress codes are important to student life, the dress code is slightly imbalanced and targets the female population of the student body. Students should not be “punished” for wearing clothing that is labeled as distracting, especially when that is not the student’s intention.
“Women should not be punished for ‘Boys being distracted.’ If a man cannot keep his eyes off of a woman’s cleavage, mid-drift, thighs, or shoulders, he should be the one getting in trouble. A woman should NOT be punished for her body. The way women dress isn’t the issue. The issue is the lack of repercussions against men. I often have seen girls wear the same or extremely similar shirts, but the one who has bigger breasts will get in trouble for it. You cannot discriminate (against) someone for their body. Nothing is inappropriate about cleavage. A woman didn’t choose to have it. Personally, I believe that if I feel comfortable in an outfit and my mother/parents allow me to wear it, it’s not the school’s concern. I feel as though there can be a dress code as long as it stops sexualizing parts of women that are normal and more focuses on safety issues. I’ve seen girls walk around in sports bras all the time, but I was once dress coded for a tight-fitting shirt that showed off a little cleavage. I believe that’s completely ridiculous. I had everything covered and there was nothing inappropriate showing, yet I was still told to change. Even if you think about this in a professional sense, if a work uniform fits a woman tighter than it fits a flatter-chested woman, the woman with the bigger chest cannot control that and should not be punished for her body. I hope one day we will be able to find a middle ground on the dress code that both protects safety and allows women to just exist freely in their own body,” said Jadyn Urich ‘24.
In conclusion, many students are opinionated about the dress code, and perhaps Delta High School’s policies should be revised.
