Dress Codes In Public Schools

Over the course of several years, the controversy of allowing dress codes in public schools has been the topic in several school districts. The school districts believe that a dress code will help students to focus more on their education, and the dress code will decrease the amount of inappropriate attire. Thus, the school desires to enforce a strict dress code to all the students in order to further the students’ knowledge and well-being. However, numerous people disagree with the schools proclaiming that students should have the ability to wear whatever the students are comfortable wearing. Therefore, the students can express themselves and have the ability to make their own fashion decisions. On the other hand, there are people who do not …show more content…
Thus, there is a few main reasons school districts want to inhibit the dress code such as the dress code will help the educational process, decrease the amount of violence and will help unify the school. However, a number of individuals do not agree with those reasons to inflict dress code. Therefore, there happens to be various studies done to counteract what the school districts claim about dress codes. Some studies have proven that the present of a dress code does not further a child’s education. Furthermore, the presents of the dress code in public schools does not directly improve the educational process, violence or bullying, and also causes financial burdens for families who cannot afford to change his or her child’s …show more content…
Once a uniform policy is implemented into a school district, the apparel once worn by students is now obsolete. The student can no longer wear the clothing he or she previously wore for school. The student’s family now has to go out and purchase an entire new wardrobe for their son or daughter due to the dress code restrictions, thus, costing the family additional money in school shopping that a family may not be able to afford, then straining the families’ income. For instance, the dress code could directly effect “families who…depend on hand-me-downs or thrift stores to begin with, and the cost of a new uniform substantially increases their clothing costs” (Konheim-Kalstein 3) due to the fact the family can no longer use cloths handed down to the students due to the cloths will not accommodate the dress code requirements. Therefore, with a new dress code parents are obligated to purchase new clothing for his or her student or the child will have to relocate to an unfamiliar school with no dress code policy. Therefore, the statement proclaimed by Loren Siegal of ACLUS, “Every child in this country has the right to a public education, and that right cannot be conditioned upon compliance with a uniform policy” (Konheim-Kalstein 3), proclaims that a district cannot force a dress code on individuals. Thus, a child deserves an exceptional education, and the child