Perkiomen High School

The tank tops worn by students at Upper Perkiomen High School should not completely eliminated without spoken reasoning. Listed as the seventh rule in the student handbook, it is stated, “Tank tops, tube tops, halter tops, muscle shirts, and garments with spaghetti straps are not permitted in school” (52). This rule states that students may not wear any top that does not cover their shoulders. My thought process, and many other students, believe this rule is absurd and has no true meaning. Students have never been clarified on why this rule is in place, although we are expected to follow it. Is it because the administrators think possible bra straps are provocative? Is it just plainly because they think shoulders are distracting? Students
don’t know. This rule has no backbone to it, from our perspective, so why should we follow it? Unless there is a truly meaningful argument against these pieces of clothing, this rule should be changed. Instead of this ludacris regulation, add a more flexible standard for this apparel. To bring to the table, a three-finger rule can be used. Although the rules have changed, when I had been in Marlborough Elementary and the UP Middle School, this rule was allowed. It stated that any student could wear a tank top, as long as the width of three of their fingers were the width of the sleeve. This is a perfectly good rule for students because everyone wins: students can wear a tank top and not sweat as much as usual, teachers won’t have to worry about yelling at students as often, and administrators won’t need to be supplying so many articles of clothing to the school nurse when a student needs to change.
In today's society, the least that school’s should be worried about are shoulders showing. This specific rule of attire is unnecessary to incorporate into our schools handbook for school is a place of learning, not judging and yelling at students for their shoulders showing. This topic could also be linked to sexualising girls and what they wear. In today’s society, girls are expected to show zero-no skin in order for it to be “appropriate”, but there’s a lot wrong with that statement. Girls, especially adolescent ones, shouldn’t be taught that wearing a tank top and showing off your shoulder is wrong and unacceptable. The specific quote, “The reason why these stupid dress codes are created is because the school systems believe that when a girl(and only girls) wear tank tops, their shoulders distract other classmates from their class work. This is a result of the unnecessary sexualization of showing a little skin, even though the temperatures may be boiling
hot. If you really want the problem t go away, first stop sexualizing tank tops. It's ridiculous!” although this comment written for a debate on students wearing tank tops may not be written grammatically correct and the spelling is off, this quote perfectly summarizes my point. We are all young children and shouldn’t be taught that our shoulders are distracting and need to be kept away, when in reality, we should be taught to not get distracted by this because it is a perfectly normal thing. If anyone goes anywhere during warmer weather, there will be tons of people wearing tank tops. This is because it is a perfectly normal thing to expose your shoulders. If a student wants to wear a tank top in order to be comfortable in our schools ranging air conditioner breaker temperatures, they should be allowed to. If our administrators allowed the spoken “three-finger” rule and it goes badly (which there is a large percentage that it won’t), then they can take away that privilege, but everyone will benefit from this change if all goes well. If the administrators of Upper Perkiomen High School gave students the privilege of wearing tank tops to school, students would be much happier.