Dress codes: Are they really enforced enough? If you take a careful look around there are a good number of people who continue to dress inappropriately because of the loosely enforced dress code here in Carson High. The dress code states that students must not wear tank tops, midriffs, tops with revealing necklines, baggy pants, short shorts, micro mini, and any clothing with gang affiliated colors. They also must not possess, display, or wear bandanas, headbands, and hats or caps other than the authorized Carson High School hats. This is to keep students safe and focused on their studies. But seeing how the current situation is now, it is definitely necessary to emphasize the importance and necessity of dress codes. Some may wonder, how does wearing certain types of clothing put one’s academics and safety at risk? As a matter of fact, yes. If a student wears a certain kind of cap, bandana, headband, shirt, or baggy pants, they may be interpreted as gang dress, arouse superiority and spread fear among the students around the school. This loosens their focus on their studies, the one thing they should be paying their utmost attention to. Being recognizable as a student also prevents others from thinking they’re in some kind of gang, and thus keeping them safe.
All these intentions are implied, yet some students keep on breaking the policy and wear whatever they want, however inappropriate. Some girls wear short shorts, tank tops, and other see-through clothing. What they fail to realize, or perhaps choose to ignore, is that they’re setting themselves up for sexual harassment. Unless you’re a masochist who secretly enjoys being sexually harassed, why wear things that will get you in a situation you would never want to be in?
Refusing to follow the dress code and wearing clothes that reveal too much skin not only provokes sexual harassment but also, and again, affects one’s studies. When students are at a tardy line and the staff notices that they are wearing inappropriate clothing, they will be taken somewhere else and be asked to change their clothing. This even more reduces the time they are supposed to be in class, and they often miss out on the crucial lessons they are supposed to be learning. Other students who defy the dress code policy choose to wear baggy pants that almost always only go up to their thighs. But does anyone ever really want to see that? As far as most people are concerned, no one wants to see that they have more than one layer of boxers. Wearing clothes inappropriately causes distraction to other students who don’t want to be disturbed and have more important things to lay their attention on. Now some may say that wearing whatever they want is their way of expressing their own individuality and the school should not interfere with that by telling them what not to wear. But do they really have to wear those inappropriate clothes in order to “express” themselves? Yes, it’s true that whatever you wear shows how you present yourself. But would you want to represent yourself as someone who looks like they’re simply at home watching T.V.?
Dress code policies are essentially good. They don’t necessarily deprive students of their individuality as long as they wear appropriate clothes, but stress the safety of the students and the importance of their education as well as the organization of the school as a whole, which represents the students themselves.