by Addison Brown | staff writer

Hats are now allowed in the building according to the updated NEISD dress code.

“We haven’t told students to take them off. So since the school year just started, we are in the process of informing students that they can wear them,” assistant principal Mike Morgan said.

Since it is up to teacher discretion, some teachers may not allow them in the classrooms, and insist that they are distracting. Just like with other clothing, hats that have profane language, alcoholic references, or anything considered “too excessive” will violate dress code. Morgan offered up a larger sombrero as an example.

“More than likely what we would ask is that the student would bring the hat down to us,” Morgan said. “What I would do is have the student come see me at the end of the day and I would let them have it and they take it home and just remind them not to bring it back.”

Although hats could obscure a student’s face, the student can still be identified by campus cameras – and in some cases, even make it easier to identify someone.

“With the fact that we have high definition cameras, if there is a situation we could obviously figure out who the student is and if you think about it back during COVID everybody wore masks it’s the exact same thing,” Morgan said.

Morgan believes that the updated dress code will be a permanent change, and in the bigger picture the dress code change was not a huge deal.

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Freshman Gage Reeves wears a black cap while working. “I just wore a hat to school,” he said and then he just started to wear them more often.

“You have to pick your battles,” Morgan said.  “And to us in the grander scheme of things, hats and hoodies and things, to me, are probably one of the lowest priorities for us. So, you know, let them do that and let’s move forward and work on something else.”