Throughout the years, dress code has been a controversial topic amongst students as to whether or not it’s reasonable, but this year, staff and administrators want to emphasize their good intentions that come with dress coding.  

“The biggest reason why we enforce a dress code in the first place is because of the possibility of an outfit or even part of an outfit being a distraction to other students and teachers,” assistant principal Stacey Whaling said. “We don’t want any school members feeling uncomfortable. We just want students to be informed and know the expectations we have.”

It may feel like staff who enforce dress code live to banish students to sweatpants and modest t-shirts, when in reality, the school says it’s done to create a sense of fairness.

“We never want dress code to be a gotcha,” Whaling said. “We want to keep it fair and consistent between every student and staff. Dress Code is school wide, staff follow it, students follow it, everyone follows it, and we want every teacher to have the same lenience about the dress code policy too.”

Some students may disagree though, claiming that only bits and pieces of the code are fair.

“I feel like dress code is unfair to a certain extent,” recently dress coded senior Olivia Overlin said. “If someone is wearing skin tight shorts I understand, but other little things like holes in jeans, I think is unreasonable.”

Every school must enforce a dress code, but this campus is one of the more lenient schools in the district.

“Dress code is a district policy,” Whaling said. “There is some wiggle room per school but we feel as if we are fairly relaxed. We allow things such as nose rings and colored hair because we want you to be able to get a feel for who you are and be able to source out individuality.”

High school isn’t the only place a dress code is prevalent and the campus dress code is working to prepare students for the future.

“There is a time and a proper place to dress appropriately in both our personal and professional lives,” professional communications teacher Cissy Blaisure said. “Some codes are basic manners, others are for professional environments, educational environments and public environments. Students should understand that dressing more conservatively for job interviews and educational environments is standard.”