Students do their best work in comfortable conditions, feeling healthy and content.  Temperature is an immense factor playing a role in the health of students as well as comfort and motivation.  When students are cold or feeling some sort of discomfort, their ability to learn and participate in the academically enriching opportunities our school provides is hindered.  This petition is serving as a unified argument as to why it is not only important but essential, students are allowed to where sweatpants under their skirts when the temperature reaches freezing or below.

In the past, students have argued a similar perspective, pushing to allow students to wear sweatpants when the weather gets ‘cold’ or when the ‘winter time’ comes.  Permitting sweatpants when the temperature reaches freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit) helps makes it clear when or when not students can wear these pants, limiting ambiguities and controversy.

We ultimately feel that prohibiting sweatpants only impedes our ability to learn in school and grow into intelligent human beings.  Studies show that uniformity is important and can help us to recall information later on tests, if we wore the same clothing when learning the information.  There is no doubting this theory, which is why we are not arguing the altering of the uniform. Instead, we arguing the addition of garments that can only help enhance our educational experiences.

Many students have said they “dread coming into school in the morning and having to take sweatpants off after being outside in the 25 degree weather.”  Others have argued, “I find it more difficult to concentrate in my first period class when my body is still adjusting to the cold temperatures outside.”  Additionally, many classrooms throughout the school vary in temperature.  Wearing leggings under our skirts limits our ability to take them off if a class room is warmer than others.  Furthermore, leggings can be uncomfortable and bulky at the waist making it uncomfortable when seated at our desks during the school day.

Speaking on behalf of many of the female students at Good Counsel, we wonder why it is that our physical health, education, and comfort are being neglected, when an easy fix to this obstacle is so apparent.  It would mean a lot to the student body if the dress code at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School would allow for students to wear neutral colored, or GC branded sweatpants under our uniform skirts when the weather reaches freezing or below.