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Ejimadu 1

Chidinma Ejimadu

Mr.phillips

English 3

31 May 2019

Dress codes
Should students have a dress code? Dress codes are to enforce rules on students to dress

appropriately. however some students clothing choices defines who they are and their style, But

now some students have taken it to the extreme and wearing inappropriate clothing, so some

schools are gravitating to being a uniform school. But if they switch to being a uniform wearing

school, students will not have diversity, style, or individuality but I also feel like students should

have discipline and respect for themselves in the clothing they choose to wear. Restrictive school

dress codes are often used to unfairly target female students, students of color, and people who

wear religious attire like the hijab. There have been countless examples of school administrators

and teachers that use these policies to police their student's bodies and wardrobes.

There are some school districts that created an anti-dress code policy that makes attempts

to both allow students to wear what they want, but make certain things they can't wear very clear.

And back to the fact that the dress code sometimes targets students of color there have been

several instances where students protested dress codes they felt were unfairly targeting certain

groups and genders and some students of color sometimes have the police called on them if

refused to remove their bandana, durag, scarf etc.

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And I feel like dress codes should be used to protect people, and to teach students how to

dress appropriately for the real world and not to unfairly target them. And I feel like schools

should not send students home if their attire “breaks” the dress code because they’re depriving

the student from class time, class work and learning, instead they should invest in buying spare

clothing to give to students if they break the rule. Also the dress code is insensitive to tall

females specifically because they have long legs and arms shorts, skirts and dresses look short on

them and they might be in danger to get a dress code violation.

And some of the problems with the teachers/administrators who assign dress codes is that

they don’t go outside much during the school day so only students really know what the weather

is like and want to dress for the weather and some get punished because of that. And some

students want to fit in with other students and wear what everybody else is wearing and not stand

out and be labeled as different or weird. Dress codes are also insensitive to the LGBTQ students

that sometimes express themselves and their sexuality in a different ways like dressing in other

genders clothing, bright colors etc. people should not get punished for being themselves at

school.

Dress codes just takes away from students amendments and their right to freely express

themselves the way they want to.