by Maddy Lingk | staff writer
Dress code enforcement has become stricter with the start of the new school year.
“Last year things with dress code got pretty out of control,” Assistant Principal Candace Pearson said.
According to Pearson, many people had violated the dress code by wearing revealing shorts and tops.
“It hasn’t changed, but we’re working to enforce it more consistently this year, you know,” Pearson said. “And if you remember when school started last year it was the first time for a lot of people to be back in a school building.”
The school wants dress code enforcement to be like it was prior to Covid-19. Despite this, many students might be confused as to what they should and should not wear.
“So in the district dress code it talks about anything related to drugs or alcohol, ” Pearson said. “For example, so if you’re like wearing a Budweiser shirt that would be inappropriate, the Playboy advertising is something we consider to be inappropriate for school.”
Additionally shirts need to reach your waistband without any midriff showing, and skirts or shorts must fully cover your behind. Students can go to the assistant principals’ office area to receive a change of clothes.
“So if it’s related to your shirt, we’ve got tons of Johnson t-shirts here in the office,” Pearson said. “And so we would ask someone to go put on one of the t-shirts we provide and turn in their item of clothing that was against dress code.”
If a student is caught violating the dress code, they would have to change in the A wing first floor bathrooms.
“It could be any adult in this building, so it could be an assistant principal, it could be a counselor, a teacher, a custodian, someone- any adult in this campus can do that,” Pearson said.
Teachers will also have slips to send down to the assistant principals’ offices. If a student has multiple violations, they might find themselves having detention. If they refuse to change, they could risk having in school suspension.
“It doesn’t have to be a big deal, like you come down here to change your shirt and move on and that’s it,” Pearson said. “But if it’s a repeated thing or someone refusing to change then we would look at consequences kind of depending on what happened.”
The dress code might seem strict, but hair color, piercings, and tattoos are allowed.
“Piercings are fine, tattoos are fine, as long as they’re not again like vulgar or showing something inappropriate then they would need to be covered,” Pearson said. “We don’t consider those to be problems to be honest. “
In accordance with Pearson, the school wants students to adhere to the dress code more than they did previously.
“As we’re starting a new year we’re trying to put several new processes and procedures and rules in place just to help everything in general be better here at school,” Pearson said.
