Dress code has been an issue in schools for a long time. The Glendale Unified School District (GUSD), along with the rest of the country, has worked hard to redo their dress code policies to make them better for students, but it could use a few important adjustments. It’s not a huge deal right now, because we’re currently learning online, but this may become an issue again when we return to in-person learning.
The current Glendale High School dress code is pretty standard. No gang symbols or racial slurs are allowed on clothing, and students cannot wear anything that can be used as a weapon.
However, one part stands out to me and it says, “No clothing with see-through fabric which exposes the body, bare midriffs, tube-tops, muscle shirts, or or [sic] halter-tops.” Aside from the grammatical error, the problem with this rule is that most of those clothes mentioned are worn predominantly by girls. This means that boys at Glendale schools clearly have more freedom in terms of clothes, while girls are more limited in what they can wear.
This is unfair, because when we go back to in-person learning, almost half of the students at our school will have to follow extra dress code rules or risk being “dress coded”. These rules do more harm than good, because although the dress code doesn’t mention gender, girls are affected differently than boys by this rule.
Removing these specific restrictions will have a positive effect on our schools, because people will feel more comfortable studying in the clothes that they actually want to wear. It’s also a great way to prepare students for the future, because there is no dress code outside of school, so it will be much easier for students to get used to our society’s expectations.
The California city of Alameda set a perfect example in 2018, when they were faced with the same problem. They resolved it by doing what was best in their situation. They listened to their students and made a new dress code which allowed people to wear everything from tube-tops to pajamas.
GUSD should follow their lead, because in their survey about the effect of the new dress code on the student experience, a vast majority of staff did not think that it had a negative impact on the student experience.
Our District is already making a number of different changes to make this community a better place. The John Wayne Performing Arts Center renaming has been a step in the right direction. One of the GUSD Board of Education priorities is to support “physical, social, and emotional wellbeing.” That is exactly what they will accomplish by changing their dress code.
