Stephanie Kalinowski ’19, Student Life Editor and Paulina Swain ’19, Social Media Manager
Spring is just around the corner and so are the hall monitors. Spring means warm weather and exposed shoulders that are complete distractions for guys. The debate on the school dress code has been at the top of the news for years, and it seems like nothing is being done about it. The main purpose of a school dress code is so that students do not show up to school without any clothes on or end up wearing something completely inappropriate.
In recent years, the school dress code only seems to apply to girls. Every single news story is about a girl who got sent home or suspended for wearing a tank top with too thin of a strap. Honestly, shoulders are not inappropriate and it makes no sense why guys can wear tank tops and expose their shoulders, but when a girl shows up the same way, it is considered a huge distraction for boys.
Waking up in the morning before school and having to make sure our choice of clothing suits the dress code for the school is not even the worse part. We do not get a choice to wear what we want even if it is not inappropriate. Why should girls be forced to cover their shoulders when it is warm out just because guys will not be able to focus on school with girl’s shoulders exposed.
The dress code has loosened up since our middle school days though. Girls were not even allowed to wear leggings because it showed ‘too much behind’ and was a distraction. As we got older, it got stricter, and we had to wear a shirt that completely covered our front and back. Somehow, it is like we are not allowed to show our bodies in anyway because guys ‘cannot control themselves’.
Senior Danielle Dombrowski reminises this time and said, “Middle School was the most frustrating time of my life, we all were already embarrassed and self conscious of our changing bodies and the hall monitors would stare every girl down to make sure they were not wearing leggings.”
With just a few weeks left of school, let us try to not get caught by the hall monitor just trying to air out those beautiful and delicate shoulders. The school dress code should be reconsidered and be enforced on boys, not just girls.
Photo courtesy of WikiHow
Lyon Life 
Hi SLHS Student Productions!
I stumbled across your article as I was reading other posts about modesty. Interesting perspective!
You seem to be making the argument that the modesty requirements for guys and girls should be exactly the same, especially regarding tank tops (am I understanding you correctly?). If this is what you are trying to communicate, let me ask you a question: do you think the requirements on girls might be a little more extensive because girls will show cleavage with a skimpier tank top, whereas guys obviously will not?
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