Our school’s dress code is terrible. It has done nothing but apply unequal rules unequally. Hagerty’s rules have always been aimed at girls, and girls have always felt the fullest extremes of their punishment.

I feel like every single time I see an administrator writing up someone on the issue of dress code, it is always a girl. Where is the equality that our student handbook professes? Where is the equal application of rules against boys who dress in just as distracting manners. For that matter, who gets to decide what is distracting and inappropriate? The real answer—a biased school board.

I myself have been dress coded several times. I never really wore anything especially revealing, maybe just a tank top or ripped jeans. For my efforts I was dress coded—at the same time boys walked by with ripped jeans hanging around their knees with no punishment at all.

I am frightened, even now, to write this. I write anonymously, because I know that my opinion is deeply unpopular with the administration. I am already a target for dress codes—what happens when I openly ask for their change?

So, if any administrator is reading this here is what I ask: that you either make rules more lenient, or you apply them more equally. Instead of having a dress code that is always used against girls, maybe administrators should pay just as much attention to boy’s infractions. And if this cannot be done, then the rules should be eased or the punishments lightened. Sadly I think that in no way will the application of dress code ever be equal, evidenced by the years that have passed before I write today. 

Call it sexism or backwardness or unfair but dress code rules at Hagerty really need a change. Maybe if we all work together and the administrators have a change of heart, I (and others) may finally go to school and not constantly cower from an administrator lurking around the corner. Maybe then I can really feel like my school supports me.

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