Industrial is a wonderful school district that parents love for their children. As a school, we stand out in academics, sports, and our overall ability to care for our students. There is however an issue with how we have remained stuck in the past when it comes to some of our district dress code. 

• male students must be clean-shaven at all times
• male hair length must not extend over the ears, curl up or extend beyond the top of shirt collar in back.
• males are not allowed to wear earrings

Page 57 of the student handbook makes the statement "certain guidelines need to be followed so that the educational process is not diverted" in regards to the above mentioned dress code rules. I do not understand how a male with stud earrings, tidy facial hair, and waist length hair is disrupting to the educational process. I do understand that these rules were set in place many years ago and have not been updated with the times we currently live in. Female students and some male students are allowed to wear makeup, which is not a natural facial occurance, but we tell our boys they can not have facial hair which is a daily natural occurance for them. We tell our girls that wearing makeup is something you get to do once you become a woman and we are excited for their new found womanhood. When boys get facial hair, it is their body telling them they are becoming a man, but we are not allowing them to show their new found manhood. Earrings are not a natural occurring thing on anyone, so i do not understand why girls are allowed to wear them and boys are not. Hair length on a male does not determine anything other than how often he has gotten a cut, how often he needs to wash it, and brush it. The dress code at Industrial is nothing more than a few peoples archaic ideas of what is socially acceptable of the sexes. The world our children have been born into is very different than the world we were born into and some of the dress code rules need to  be adjusted to reflect those changes. We are not asking for Industrials core values to change, but we are asking for small adjustments.

• males students allowed to have facial hair that is groomed and not unruly
• male students are allowed to have hair of any length as long as it stays within the rules given to female students. no unnatural colors, must not be in eyes, and must be groomed (washed and brushed)
• male students can wear earrings