I just can’t help myself. One day into the kids’ school year and I’m all set with my first school policy related rant involving two different dress code issues.
As a way to ground everyone around my reality, our School District policy reads,
Clothing must cover the body from one armpit across to the other armpit and down to mid-thigh. All tops must have sleeves and cover the entire shoulder.
Dress Code (Policy 5500.04), Pinellas County, Florida
While not overly OMG, I hate this attempt at an objective rule engulfed with subjective assessment.
Having been raised by two teachers, though, I ALWAYS error on the side of supporting the school and its established rules. But, after my daughter and several friends were issued a verbal warning on School Day #1 for breaking the school policy, I’m annoyed.
Boys wear short-shorts…but, how dare girls do
My daughter’s shorts, from my view, are awfully short. Most mornings end with me saying, “I love you, you look great, but please watch your butt hanging out.” I’ll be real – by letter of the law my daughter’s shorts did, I bet, fall outside of the now-being-enforced school policy. If my daughter needs to lower her shorts, I have no issues there. A formal demerit seems heavy-handed for such an infraction, but whatever.
My annoyance is not with the intent of the rule, but the imbalanced enforcement between boys and girls.
You see, my son, a 16-year-old junior at the same school, seems to be operating under a set of different rules altogether – having avoided a dress code admonishment despite wearing hiked up shorts with his boxers peaking out of the bottom. The length of this gym shorts is indistinguishably different when compared with this sister’s.
Huh?
Has my son simply been successful in avoiding the poor teachers and administrators tasked with adherence to this antiquatted rule? Or, are our daughters being overly-targeted?
My Facebook feed (and yours’s) is filled with smiling kids heading out to take on another school year. From my seat, boys are wearing tighter shirts and shorts that are as short as possible (even rolling the waist band to hike them up further). Girl fashions are a hodge-podge of baggy shirts, tighter body suits, leggings (now outlawed), and short-shorts (also prohibited).
Neither side’s fashion choices, it seems to me, are creating a distraction for other students outside of those that already exist.
How is it, though, that (anecdotally, I know) I am learning that the overwhelming majority of students cited for violations at our school are (to no surprise) female?
Furthermore, are we comfortable having school staff – males and females alike – scanning our students up and down to assess how much leg is too much?
This behavior is odd at it’s most innocent, creepy and weird at worst, and total BS on all fronts when our daughters are disproportionately impacted if you ask me.
No spaghetti straps even without meatballs?
Kids cannot run from two first day of school certainties: (1) morning pictures by parents and (2) oppressively hot weather. From those two assumptions, can dress codes have exception carve-outs for deviations that allow for in-school comfort at different ages based on extreme conditions?
Said differently, can my 8-year-old daughter wear a FREAKING tank top to third grade when the heat index is 110 degrees?
When the heat indexes exceed 100 degrees, can a school district provide a rule that aligns to common sense while not “opening the flood gates” to overly proactive dress?
If a district doesn’t want to provide broad exceptions, can we empower our school’s leaders to? Principals are professionals, how about allow them to run their own show within reason.
While not as blatantly sexist as my first complaint above, this “no tank” policy disproportionately impacts our daughters at all levels of education and, again, makes little sense during the first few weeks of school in most geographies – particularly in Florida.
I hope that all this dress code fuss is nothing more than over-application a newly mandated emphasis for our district leaders. I’m probably overreacting (as usual). I hope so.
Until that proves itself out, though, I’ll advise my daughters to have as much covered as possible to avoid the Principal’s office. All while my boys buy underwear that will look cool while sticking out of the bottom of their shorts.
Rant over (but more to come:).
