If you’re a student at MOHS you will likely know what this petition is about. At Moanalua High School(MOHS), much like every other school in the nation, has a dress code. In our Student Expectations this is what it states “Appropriate dress for a formal learning environment is expected. Examples of inappropriate attire would include visible underwear, exposed midriff, exposed bottoms, low hanging pants, clothing with suggestive pictures, offensive phrases, or display/advertisement of drugs, alcohol or weapons.” As it is very vague, there’s plenty of ways our Administrators can dictate what’s appropriate or not based on their own judgment. The issue here is gives our vice principles too much power, and when they actually enforce the dress code it’s always targeted towards the female students. If one of our administrators dress coded a certain student that week, that student becomes a target for them the entire week instead of focusing on the other hundreds of students that are there. (To clarify I have nothing against our Vice Principles here). Our first week at school we had about 3 assembly’s, at these events they were on the lookout for girls who showed even an inch of their stomach. Here at MOHS they need to recognize that it’s always going to be 75-95+ degrees year round, and that we’re not always going to dress to their liking.
           At this point we can’t even take the dress code seriously if there are girls and students (that are wearing not “school appropriate clothing”) who go right up to the VPs ,and talk to them like their friends and not get pressed or lectured for it. Our assembly last week had showed many videos about the school rules considering Chapter 19. One video I will point out was of course about the dress code. In this the video showed 3 girls getting dress coded for bare midriffs and/or not having any type of sleeve. The video showed only girls and no guys getting dress coded, showing that their main target was only the girl students at MOHS. What our school needs to understand is that our midriffs, shoulders, and what we wear isn’t a distraction. Countless students have expressed how they feel about the dress code and this gives us the chance to really make it a change in this school. This concerns all of Moanalua high school, every class, every gender, and every student. We as students have the power to change this, and that’s what this petition is for.