Strict School Dress Codes

I believe that everyone living in the United States has had their privacy invaded or freedom taken from them more than once, whether intentionally or accidentally, but it has been a greater issue still to the female population in certain cases, such as those who have been forced to submit to the unjust rules of school dress codes across the nation. Strict dress codes constrict any form of creativity for students to express themselves or reflect who they are through their garments. In one case in Woodford County, Kentucky a mother had to be pulled out of her job to go to the school and find that her daughter was in trouble for showing her collarbones.
Especially during prom, many women have had to change their attire and wear a “shame suit”
which is alternate attire for when students do not meet the dress code. This is an embarrassing act put upon young women and should be listed under bullying, which all schools are supposed to be against. With these unjust dress policies women are objectified and overly sexualized.
Exceedingly strict school dress codes have angered many students and parents, causing protests and rebellions to occur throughout many schools in such circumstances.
Many students have even assembled a protest titled “show your shoulders,” similar to the passive rebellion in the 1960’s during the Vietnam War when a group of students from Des Moines wore black arm bands to protest against the war. Because the war cost so much money and too many lives, more and more students agreed that the war was not worth being involved in, and decided to join the movement. School principals soon became afraid that students might disrupt classrooms with their protests and a rule was passed that students could no longer wear black armbands or else they would be sent home and could not come back until they no longer wore them. Ignoring the Principal’s rule, five students continued to wear the armband and were threatened by everyone around them. Soon enough they were expelled but returned after Christmas break without the armbands and instead rebelled by wearing solid black. Since the students would not obey, principals decided to arrange a meeting with the school board and discuss the situation, and the school board immediately agreed that this was an issue and helped the principals enforce their rules but the students decided to take it to court and make it an official case, which they later won because they were protected by the first
amendment.
There are about 700,000 (0.2-0.3%) people living in the U.S. who Identify as Transgender; 89,667 of which have changed their names, and 21,833 who have had a sex change. With multiple people now deciding what specific gender they identify as, School Dress Codes need to become more lenient in cases where males want to wear female clothing and vice versa. Within most schools, the districts enforce rules that do not allow students to dress in fashion that is not according to their gender.
In Gary, Indiana, a case titled Logan V. Gary Community School Corporation was held where a transgender student, K.K. Logan who considered herself a female but was born male (Kevin) was discriminated during prom by her Principal Diane Rouse. “Her classmates and teachers supported her, and called her by her preferred nickname, K.K., instead of her birth name, Kevin. But when Logan attended the prom wearing a dress, she was literally blocked by Principal Diane Rouse, who stretched her arms across the door of the off-campus banquet center where the prom was held…The high school justified its actions by referencing a policy that prohibits clothing that advertises one's sexual orientation.” This article by Lambda legal (December 2007) specifies just how Dress Code prohibits freedom of expression, which is our legal right under the first amendment. As written in our constitution, we have the right to freedom of religion, speech, press and self-presentation. Meaning we may express ourselves by believing in who and what we wish, saying what is on our mind, publishing our opinion, and presenting ourselves as we see fit to demonstrate to others.
With the way school dress codes are organized, we are not able to individually express who we are through our wardrobe. We are being cut off of creativity, just like a communist country where everyone has to dress in the same uniform. University professors and students have no dress code and can still get through the class without disturbance. If a teacher cannot concentrate on teaching the class because a student is showing their shoulders, maybe the teacher is the problem and not the student. More people need to realize this problem we have in our school system and put end to this confining dress code.