A sophomore student walked in late to second block Journalism class due to having a dress code issue. She said that an assistant principal had told her to change clothes because her dress was too short. She had on a spring floral, three-quartered sleeve, belted, conservative dress that did measure four and one quarter of an inch above her knee. The neckline was high with barely a scoop at the collarbone. Still, the rule says no hemline more than four inches above the knee.

No one in the class could believe the dress had been a problem, but one male student quipped, “I guess I can’t be expected to concentrate.”

Another classmate said that a girl in one of his classes had a male assistant principal tug on the bottom of her skirt and tell her it was too short. The girl told the principal, “Don’t touch me,” the student reported.

One major problem that South Pointe High School has is dress code.

In addition to the hemline for dresses, skirts and shorts rule, we aren’t allowed to wear leggings, jeggings, biker/spandex shorts, yoga pants, rags, bandannas, scarves, hats, and much more. The dress code is simply so outdated it’s laughable.

A recent family photo of our President, his wife and his two teenaged daughters shows both girls wearing much shorter dresses (although the same floral, conservative, spring ones popular this year) than the one our classmate was wearing. The hemlines on appropriate clothes has simply gone up in recent years for females. Even the guys are wearing shorter shorts. The dress code needs to change the four inches rule.

Also, I strongly disagree with the clothes we are not allowed to wear. If we aren’t showing anything, then why are we not allowed to wear what we want. Why have special dress up days, when we can just dress up the way we want everyday?

If the school doesn’t buy our clothes, then students should be able to wear their fashionable clothes. Most students that I know have to struggle with their outfits for school because of the dress code being so unfair. Stores simply don’t sell the things specified in the student handbook as OK anymore!

Last year, I got sent to the office for a beautiful outfit I had just bought the day before. I had on orange, white, and blue leggings with a tank top and vest on, but guess what I got sent to the office for my leggings.

My mom had to bring me a pair of pants. Thank goodness she wasn’t at work that day, but she was blazing mad when she had to drive all the way back over to the

school, from the laundramat, just to bring me a pair of pants when my legs were completely covered. I wish they could have seen the anger on her face.

A solution to this unfair dress code would be to work in today’s style into the dress code policy we have now. These are not simple teenage fads: leggings are considered acceptable pants in the mainstream fashion world. All hemlines are shorter.

Administrators need to work to amend the dress code this summer, with input from students whose character they admire and with input from parents who buy the clothes! If they are determined to dress us in outdated, long, baggy clothing, they need to have a closet on campus with things for us to put on to avoid loss of valuable class time.

By Ayanna McCloud, contributor