Recently, a Paulding County High School has announced that they are hammering down on dress code for the 2022-2022 school year. PCSD teachers have referred to this as the most intense it has ever been enforced. Some teachers have even admitted to being in hours long meetings discussing the dress code. Our mission is not to abolish the dress code entirely. We know it’s purpose but it has many faults that harm more than benefit. Teachers have remarked that the reason for this heavy enforcement is because of sexist complaints about the dress code. This is illogical, because although it has been made clear that that we may not wear hats and no “short shorts” (in response to the male directed dress code), they have doubled the strictness of the female directed dress code. We won’t discuss the details of how strict it is, but instead the underlying damage. 

1. Many students cannot afford to buy more clothes. What their parents buy them is what they get. What about these students. 

2. It is written that if an administrator finds a student’s attire to be distracting that they may be sent to ISS. This disrupts the education of a female for the attention of male. 

3. It excuses inappropriate behavior. Many female students have described scenarios where because their outfit was out of dress code, harassment that they faced from their male peers was overlooked and excused. 

4. The dress code is on the basis of sexualizing women’s bodies. Few outfits are deemed inappropriate for men, but the bodies of women must be carefully contained. 

5. Many women are discriminated against because of their size. They cannot control how their clothing accentuates their curves due to their size. 

6. Lastly, it takes attention away from the real problems PCSD. Staff have admitted to dress code being a priority to the school, but many issues have been swept under the rug. (i.e. sexual harassment, home issues, mental illness, etc.) With the amount of time teachers have spent discussing dress code, they could have been discussing and training on how to notice the signs of these issues and how to better help us students. 

This isn’t an issue of “We want to have holes in our jeans.” This is a much bigger issue. These are real experiences that many women from this school (graduated and enrolled) have delt with.