LIZZIE WILDE and KAELI ALMICH –

Dress Code –  

Does the school board value male students’ education over females?

From the moment students begin their k-12 educational career, there is a common dress code. As a simple breakdown by gender, this is how it goes;

Boys:

• No sagging
• No hats
• No gang signs/drug references

Girls:

• No spaghetti straps
• No belly showing
• No cleavage showing
• No shorts too short
• No skirts too short
• And last but most definitely not least, no leggings

For the most part, the aspects of the dress code seem rather reasonable for an educational environment. Hats can be an interference, gang violence or drug usage shouldn’t be advertised, and girls wearing comfy pants is a source of distraction. Wait… is that right?

Ever since the banning of leggings at Castle View began being enforced by administration last year by means of dress coding girls, it’s easy to say that students, both male and female, have not been happy. Frustration broke out all throughout the school and students even took to social media to voice their opinions. One example included a Twitter account titled “CV Leggings”, in which the anonymous owner spoke out and complained with CV students about the matter.

Now, it should be noted that leggings aren’t completely banned at the school. As the CV Student Handbook of 2015-2016 states on page 37, “leggings must be covered with skirts, shorts or long shirts.” So what’s the deal with leggings today?

“I don’t think the leggings dress code is as enforced as much as last year because everyone has worn leggings anyways. I think [administration] kind of stopped trying as hard,” said Kennedy Dahley ‘19. “I don’t think it’s right to take a female away from her education to shame her for something she’s comfortable in. They should be teaching boys to not look at girls as an object, not teaching girls that they are one.”

Does the school board really value male students’ education over females? It’s a question that’s certainly been brought up before and students have something to say about it.

“Sometimes guys will wear those muscle tank tops that show their arms, which is considered fine. But as soon as a girl bares just as much of her shoulders, she’s ‘showing too much skin’,” said Delaney Schoenfeldt ‘16. “I think that the job of the school is definitely to make sure that no one is distracted from learning, so in a way, the dress code probably seemed like a good idea. But by forcing students to take time out of their learning to change, they’re distracting the students from learning, too. The school’s job is to educate. Period.”

It seems as though the female student body’s opinions are rather similar, but it’s not only the ladies that disagree with the restrictions.

“I believe the district doesn’t necessarily value women’s education less, but I do disagree with the restrictions because supposed ‘distractions’ are not a good enough reason to limit someone’s freedoms,” said Conroy Boyd ‘16.

However, not everyone feels there is a bias.

“I would say that it’s pretty much equal; there isn’t really a side that they pick, because boys and girls, they dress differently,” said Brennan Cowing ‘16.

Though many people were angered with the restrictions in the beginning, administration has let up on dress coding girls this year for wearing leggings due to the amount of female students who do it, regardless of what is stated in the student handbook. Opinions on the subject may vary, but the girls of Castle View High School will likely continue to dress comfortably.