East Enforces New Dress Code

The school administration is buckling down on the dress code policies for this school year. The school has made an individual decision, apart from the other district high-schools, to address inappropriate fashion concerns. The new rule for gentlemen involves the banning of low slung pants, otherwise known as “sagging”. For ladies, rules have been made against tube tops and dresses, spaghetti straps, low-cut shirts, backless tops and dress, extremely short shorts and sheer tops without a full length shirt underneath.

According to Associate Principal Jeremy Higgins, teachers and administrators have been noticing the recent change in fashion and think it is necessary to address.

“I mean, ten years ago we would never have talked about sheer tops,” Higgins said. “Heck, nobody would have even known what sheer tops were. But if you have to double think or think twice about what somebody is wearing, then we need to look at that and see if it’s appropriate.”

If a student does not follow the dress-code, a staff member can either tell the student on their own or contact an administrator to address the issue.

“We are not going to say you can’t do this, you can’t do that,” Higgins said.  “It’s more of hey, what you are wearing is not appropriate.”

A staff member would then proceed to find a way to make it suitable. This includes wearing a sweatshirt if it involves a top or contacting a parent to bring something to change into. However, if a student drives to school they are allowed to get parent permission to go home during lunch.

Recently, junior Faith Connelly wore a top to school that was sheer in the back with a bandeau, a strapless fabric top worn around the bust. After a meeting she attended before school, a teacher told her what she was wearing was inappropriate. She then had to go home and change, making her late for school.

“I thought it was kind of annoying considering you could only see it in the back,” Connelly said.

These changes have been an addition to newly enforced dress-code policies from last year involving the banning of hats and hoods.

“We had the same battle with hats last year. It took time. But, there has been a considerable difference since then,” Higgins said. “And you look at the halls today and there are no hats.”

Although school staff has already noticed a difference with what people are wearing, they know the change will take time.

Students have heard that yoga pants may be the next thing brought to their attention of not wearing at school.

“I think it was brought up to us, and we kind of laughed at it,” Associate Principal Molli Anderson said. “That hasn’t been a concern, or hasn’t at this point.” The effort is more towards finding ways to wear different clothing items appropriately, rather than banning them.

The powerpoint presented, which can be accessed on the school website, was not a district wide presentation. According to Higgins, other schools are making similar efforts for the same reasons. For example, the powerpoint presented used many of the same ideas that Blue Valley High School is addressing to their students.

The purpose of enforcing these rules is not to ban lace or sheer tops; students can continue to wear them if they layer items underneath correctly. Anderson described a Youtube account holder by the name of “macbarbie07” who does video blogs throughout the year about different topics about school. She recently did a video on different outfits to wear at the beginning of school.

“She addresses how to layer things and things and not being too short. She has a huge, huge following,” Anderson said. “It was like, this is the kind of stuff girls can be thinking of and still look trendy, fashionable, but also be appropriate for a school setting.”

According to the school staff, they want to make a sincere effort to stay informed on new styles and make changes accordingly, and students need to make an equal effort to dress responsibly. Teachers believe that when clothing has disruptive factors, it can interfere with other students learning.

“We are not trying to squash fashion at all,” Higgins said. “We are not trying to have a school uniform or anything. We are trying to institute a dress code.”