Pen Argyl Area High School Dress Code Essay

It has been recognizable that the administration and school board are trying all they can to make Pen Argyl Area High School a place people would like coming to. However, there have been some controversies going around the last couple of years. One of the biggest controversies have been the dress code that the school board has come up with. There have been many changes to the things students can and can not wear over the past four years. Students must adhere to a very strict dress code, and if they do not, they will have to face consequences. Students and other members of the school district area have seen some flaws in this. The Pen Argyl Area School District dress code should be less strict because it is gender biased, fewer people will get in trouble, and it will benefit students and parents.
The dress code is not very gender friendly, and the dress code sheet can prove it. Altogether on the “NO” side, there are twelve things. Out of those twelve, seven are gender neutral, one pertains to boys, and five relates to girls. On behalf of the school community, that is just not fair. Explicitly stated on the

dress code sheet, it says, “Any tight fitting clothing, that although may cover the skin, draws attention to certain parts of the body. Explicitly forbidden: Leggings, Jeggings, Tights, Yoga, Spandex.... .” For one thing, girls should not have to be uncomfortable in clothes because it “draws attention”. Girls are not trying to get attention out of anything, they just want to be comfortable in a place where they have to sit in for seven hours a day. Also, not everyone in the school gets caught for breaking dress code. When it is spring and summer time in school, boys like to wear “boat shorts”, and these shorts are not very long. When standing, they come above a guy's knee, and while sitting, up to his thighs. That is in violation to the rule, “All shorts, dresses, and skirts must come to the knee. If the dress code is less gender biased, there will be less people getting in trouble.
With a less strict dress code, fewer students will be getting into trouble. Not only is this a good thing for the student's reputation, it is good for the school's reputation. There will be less writes up for the students, grade levels, and the school as a whole. There are students who lose class time because they get sent to the office and have to stay there and wait until they can find a change of clothes. To students, and especially parents, this is unfair. Parents are at work all day, majority of the time they have to leave work, go home and get clothes, and then come to the school to drop them off. The parents now miss time to be making money, and the students miss time to be learning lessons for tests. One example of students missing class, is one year, in a math class, almost half of the class was in the office for “violating the dress code” when none of them were any big deal. In addition to all of this, teachers can be getting other things done throughout the day than looking at students to make sure they are “dressed appropriately.”
Lastly, changing the dress code will benefit students and parents. Because of a strict dress code, deciding what clothes to wear in the morning is very time consuming. However, with a less strict one, students could spend more time getting sleep than worrying about what they are going to wear. Buying clothes is something that does not come cheap in today's world. With the dress code, families are being forced to go out and buy new outfits in addition to perfectly fine clothes already in their children's closets. One rule is that girls can not wear leggings or yoga pants. There is a big difference between the price in these two. For a pair of jeans, it will cost you anywhere from thirty to fifty dollars at most places. That is a lot of money, especially when a majority of girls complain that jeans are uncomfortable. Yoga pants and leggings are far more cheap than jeans. They range from five to forty dollars depending on where you want to get them and the quality. Yoga pants are very comfortable and they look more professional than jeans and sweatpants. In the high school, there is no air conditioner. When school is just starting, it is still summertime, and around eighty to ninety degrees outside for the first two to three weeks of school. When it is that hot out outside, it is even hotter in the classrooms. Some rooms get up to one hundred degrees. Unfortunately, girls can do nothing but be extremely hot in their jeans. Junior, Samantha Lau says that “I think that the dress code should be less strict when it comes to sleeve and pants length. Since Pen Argyl has limited air conditioning, it is very uncomfortable for the students, especially girls. It is difficult to concentrate in such hot conditions, and it would be a little easier if the dress code would allow for shorter clothing.” When asking Riley Porter, a male junior, at Pen Argyl High School if he thinks there should be a change in the dress code, he said “I would say yes, because when it's really hot girls have nothing to wear except pants so they sweat a lot and it's probably really uncomfortable.” Some may say why can they not wear a dress or a skirt instead? Well, that is because it is not very easy to find a dress that meets all the dress code rules. On charlotterusse.com, out of 230 casual dresses, only six of them meet the appropriate leg length and sleeves length. Out of 46 maxi/midi dresses, five of them meet the criteria for dress code. In addition, it is also very hard to find both athletic and jean shorts that come to the knee.
The Pen Argyl Area High School is a college prep school.

However, in college, there is no dress code, students are allowed to express themselves. So why are students being restricted for being them? Junior, Arielle Heisler, said “I feel that some people aren't able to express themselves and it's always only directed towards girls and not the guys.” There should not be students in a school who feel that they can not be true to who they are. There was a survey of forty three people: twenty girls, twenty guys, and three parents. They were all asked the same question: “Do you think dress code should be less strict?” Out of those forty people, thirty eight said yes, and five said no. It is time to take a stand against the dress code and make it accordingly to both genders, so less people get bad reputations, and to make life easier for all parents and

students.

Thank you for your time,

Madison Leis