dress code discrimination essay

The Sexism of School Dress Codes

These policies can perpetuate discrimination against female students, as well as LGBT students.

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Maggie Sunseri was a middle-school student in Versailles, Kentucky, when she first noticed a major difference in the way her school’s dress code treated males and females. Girls were disciplined disproportionately, she says, a trend she’s seen continue over the years. At first Sunseri simply found this disparity unfair, but upon realizing administrators’ troubling rationale behind the dress code—that certain articles of girls’ attire should be prohibited because they “distract” boys—she decided to take action.

“I’ve never seen a boy called out for his attire even though they also break the rules,” says Sunseri, who last summer produced S hame: A Documentary on School Dress Code , a film featuring interviews with dozens of her classmates and her school principal, that explores the negative impact biased rules can have on girls’ confidence and sense of self. The documentary now has tens of thousands of YouTube views, while a post about the dress-code policy at her high school—Woodford County High—has been circulated more than 45,000 times on the Internet.

Although dress codes have long been a subject of contention, the growth of platforms like Facebook and Instagram, along with a resurgence of student activism , has prompted a major uptick in protests against attire rules, including popular campaigns similar to the one championed by Sunseri. Conflict over these policies has also spawned hundreds of Change.org petitions and numerous school walkouts. Many of these protests have criticized the dress codes as sexist in that they unfairly target girls by body-shaming and blaming them for promoting sexual harassment. Documented cases show female students being chastised by school officials, sent home, or barred from attending events like prom.

Meanwhile, gender non-conforming and transgender students have also clashed with such policies on the grounds that they rigidly dictate how kids express their identities. Transgender students have been sent home for wearing clothing different than what’s expected of their legal sex, while others have been excluded from yearbooks. Male students, using traditionally female accessories that fell within the bounds of standard dress code rules, and vice versa, have been nonetheless disciplined for their fashion choices. These cases are prompting their own backlash.

Dress codes—given the power they entrust school authorities to regulate student identity—can, according to students, ultimately establish discriminatory standards as the norm. The prevalence and convergence of today’s protests suggest that schools not only need to update their policies—they also have to recognize and address the latent biases that go into creating them.

At Woodford County High, the dress code bans skirts and shorts that fall higher than the knee and shirts that extend below the collarbone. Recently , a photo of a female student at the school who was sent home after wearing a seemingly appropriate outfit that nonetheless showed collarbone—went viral on Reddit and Twitter.

Posted by Stacie Dunn on Thursday, August 13, 2015

The restrictions and severity of dress codes vary widely across states, 22 of which have some form of law granting local districts the power to establish these rules, according to the Education Commission of the States. In the U.S., over half of public schools have a dress code, which frequently outline gender-specific policies. Some administrators see these distinctions as necessary because of the different ways in which girls and boys dress. In many cases, however, female-specific policies account for a disproportionate number of the attire rules included in school handbooks. Certain parts of ​ Arkansas’s statewide dress code, for example, exclusively applies to females. * Passed in 2011, the law “requires districts to prohibit the wearing of clothing that exposes underwear, buttocks, or the breast of a female student.” (The provision prohibiting exposure of the "underwear and buttocks" applies to all students.)

Depending on administrators and school boards, some places are more relaxed, while others take a hard line. Policies also tend to fluctuate, according to the University of Maryland American-studies professor and fashion historian Jo Paoletti, who described dress-code adaptations as very “reactionary” to whatever happens to be popular at the time—whether it’s white go-go boots or yoga pants. Jere Hochman, the superintendent of New York’s Bedford Central School District echoes Paoletti in explaining that officials revisit his district’s policy, which has been in place “for years and years and years,” “on an informal basis.” “It’s likely an annual conversation, he notes, “based on the times and what’s changed and fads.”

While research on dress codes remains inconclusive regarding the correlation between their implementation with students’ academic outcomes, many educators agree that they can serve an important purpose: helping insure a safe and comfortable learning environment, banning T-shirts with offensive racial epithets, for example. When students break the rules by wearing something deemed inappropriate, administrators must, of course, enforce school policies.

The process of defining what’s considered “offensive” and “inappropriate,” however, can get quite murky. Schools may promote prejudiced policies, even if those biases are unintentional. For students who attend schools with particularly harsh rules like that at Woodford, one of the key concerns is the implication that women should be hypercognizant about their physical identity and how the world responds to it. “The dress code makes girls feel self-conscious, ashamed, and uncomfortable in their own bodies,” says Sunseri.

Yet Sunseri emphasizes that this isn’t where she and other students take the most issue. “It's not really the formal dress code by itself that is so discriminatory, it’s the message behind the dress code,” she says, “My principal constantly says that the main reason for [it] is to create a ‘distraction-free learning zone’ for our male counterparts.” Woodford County is one of many districts across the country to justify female-specific rules with that logic, and effectively, to place the onus on girls to prevent inappropriate reactions from their male classmates. (Woodford County High has not responded to multiple requests for comment.)

“To me, that’s not a girl’s problem, that’s a guy’s problem,” says Anna Huffman, who recently graduated from Western Alamance High School in Elon, North Carolina, and helped organize a protest involving hundreds of participants. Further north, a group of high-school girls from South Orange, New Jersey, similarly launched a campaign last fall, #IAmMoreThanADistraction , which exploded into a trending topic on Twitter and gleaned thousands of responses from girls sharing their own experiences.

Educators and sociologists, too, have argued that dress codes grounded in such logic amplify a broader societal expectation: that women are the ones who need to protect themselves from unwanted attention and that those wearing what could be considered sexy clothing are “asking for” a response. “Often they report hearing phrases like, ‘boys will be boys,’ from teachers,” says Laura Bates, a co-founder of The Everyday Sexism Project . “There’s a real culture being built up through some of these dress codes where girls are receiving very clear messages that male behavior, male entitlement to your body in public space is socially acceptable, but you will be punished.”

“These are not girls who are battling for the right to come to school in their bikinis—it’s a principle,” she says.

There’s also the disruption and humiliation that enforcing the attire rules can pose during school. Frequently, students are openly called out in the middle of class, told to leave and change, and sometimes, to go home and find a more appropriate outfit. In some instances, girls must wear brightly colored shirts that can exacerbate the embarrassment, emblazoned with words like, “Dress Code Violator. ” Some students contend this is a bigger detractor from learning than the allegedly disruptive outfit was in the first place. “That’s crazy that they’re caring more about two more inches of a girl’s thigh being shown than them being in class,” says Huffman. These interruptions can also be detrimental to peers given the time taken out from learning in order for teachers to address the issue, as Barbara Cruz, author of School Dress Codes: A Pro/Con Issue , points out .

Dress-code battles can also take place at events outside of the classroom, such as prom. At Cierra Gregersen’s homecoming dance at Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah, administrators asked female students to sit against the wall, touch their toes, and lift their arms to determine whether their outfits were appropriate. “Girls were outside the dance crying hysterically,” says Gregersen, commenting on the public nature of the inspections and the lack of clarity around the policy. “We should not have to be treated like sexual objects because that was what it felt like.” The incident prompted Gregersen to create a popular Change.org petition and stage a walkout with more than 100 classmates, but she says she never heard back from administration. (Bingham High School has not responded to multiple requests for comment.)

Every year, Strawberry Crest High School in Dover, Florida, holds a Spirit Week right around Halloween, during which students wear outfits in accordance with each day’s theme. One of the themes last year was Throwback Thursday, enabling students to dress up in ways reminiscent of a previous decade. Peter Finucane-Terlop, a junior at the time who identifies as gay, decided to come to school in drag as a 1950s housewife.

Wearing a knee-length, baby-blue strapless dress, a button-up on top, a wig, and some make-up, Finucane-Terlop’s outfit, he says, wasn’t only accepted by his peers—it also complied with all the school’s dress-code rules: His shoulders and chest were covered, and his dress was an appropriate length.

But sometimes the ways that schools regulate attire have little to do with explicit policies. According to Finucane-Terlop, a school official commented on his outfit in the middle of the courtyard during lunch that day. Finucane-Terlop recalls him saying, “Why are you dressed like that?” and “You shouldn’t do that. You’re a boy—dress like it. What if little kids saw you?”

Finucane-Terlop says he mentioned the incident to his school counselor right after it took place but didn’t end up getting a response from administrators. April Langston, Finucane-Terlop’s counselor, and David Brown, his principal at Strawberry Crest, however, do not recall talking about or hearing of such an incident.

Beyond this specific case, Emily Greytak, the research director at GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network), says the organization has noticed that incidents like the one Finucane-Terlop described are becoming more frequent, when LGBT students are discriminated against either verbally, or via disciplinary action, for clothing choices that don’t fall in line with either a dress code or dress expectations that starkly demarcate different rules based on gender. According to a recent GLSEN study , 19 percent of LGBT students were prevented from wearing clothes that were thought to be from another gender and that number was even higher for transgender students, nearly 32 percent of whom have been prevented from wearing clothes that differed from those designated for their legal sex.

“This isn’t occasional; this isn’t just some students. This is something that happens quite regularly,” Greytak says. The discipline is sometimes informed by teachers’ personal biases while in other cases, school policies discriminate against transgender or gender non-conforming students expressions of their gender identity.

As Emery Vela, a sophomore, demonstrates, eventually some students manage to navigate and help reform the policies. Vela, a transgender student who attends a charter school in Denver, Colorado, dealt with this issue when looking for footwear to match his uniform in middle school, which had different requirements for boys and girls and suspended students if they broke the rule. Despite some initial pushback, the school adjusted the policy after he spoke with administrators.

“While they’re trying to achieve this goal of having a learning environment that supports learning, it’s really disadvantaging transgender and gender non-conforming students when they have to wear something that doesn’t match their identity,” Vela says.

Dress codes trace back to the 1920s and ‘30s, and conflicts over the rules have been around ever since, says Paoletti, the fashion historian: “Dress has been an issue in public schools as long as teenagers have been interested in fashion.” Several cases, including Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District in 1969, in which students alleged that wearing black armbands at school to protest the Vietnam War constituted free speech, have even gone all the way up to the Supreme Court.

The subjectivity inherent to many of these judgment calls—like the dress-code cases contending that boys with long hair would be society’s downfall—is often what ignites conflict. As with the kinds of protests staged by Sunseri and Huffman, many of the larger movements to resist school attire regulations today echo a broader momentum for women’s rights, pushing back against existing attitudes and practices. “We’ve seen a real resurgence in the popularity of feminism and feminist activism, particularly among young people and particularly in an international sense, facilitated by social media,” says Bates, who sees dress code protests as one key everyday impact of such trends. “I think that one of the striking elements of this new wave of activism is a sense of our entitlement and our courage to tackle the forms of sexism that are very subtle, that previously it was very difficult to stand up to, because you would be accused of overreacting, of making a fuss out of nothing.”

Similarly, Greytak says these conflicts are also an indicator that LGBT students are feeling safer in their school environments and able to criticize them: “It’s very possible that we are hearing more and seeing more about these cases because before less students would even feel comfortable being and expressing themselves.”

As this issue has gained exposure and traction, students have also derived inspiration from the actions of their peers, including Sunseri, who’s now in the process of negotiating changes to the dress code with her school administration, “If high-schoolers across the country were standing up for what they believed was right, why shouldn’t I?”

According to students, the best solutions for remedying these issues entail more inclusive policymaking and raising awareness about the subject. And students and administrators tend to agree that schools should involve students early on in the rule-creation process to prevent conflicts from popping up. By developing a system like this, they have a stake in the decision and are significantly more likely to both adhere and respect the final verdict.

This also helps reduce some of the subjectivity that shapes the rules and acknowledges how touchy the topic can be for all stakeholders. “It’s sensitive for the students, it’s sensitive for the parents, it’s sensitive for the teachers,” says Matt Montgomery, the superintendent of Revere Local Schools in Richfield, Ohio. “You’re in a tough position when you’re a principal evaluating the fashion sense of a 15- or 16-year-old female. Principals are doing things like engaging female counselors and other staff members to make sure that everything is okay.”

Similarly, when conflicts do arise, maintaining an open dialogue is critical. “I always tell administrators to not be on the defensive, to hear students out, to hear families out, and then to have a well-reasoned explanation and if at all possible, to look at some of the research and be able to cite some of that,” says Cruz, the author. “Most of the time, school administrators are basing their decisions more on anecdotal evidence rather than empirical research. They need to be able to explain their rationale.”

Huffman, too, highlighted the importance of student involvement.“Adults aren’t going to be shopping at American Eagle or Forever 21,” she says, “They don’t know that it’s not even possible to buy a dress that goes to your knees.” Like Huffman, Kate Brown, a senior at Montclair High School, in Montclair, New Jersey, met with school administrators after organizing a protest, helping secure many of the policy changes her campaign had sought: removing words like “distracting.”

After all, teachers and administration don’t always realize that their policies are offensive—and this is where more education comes in. “Even for a lot of teachers in 2015, they have never had a trans student or a gender-nonconforming student where they’ve had to deal with this,” Finucane-Terlop says. “It’s new to them, so I understand that they might not know how to react.”

Ultimately, such rules could be the wrong way to handle some of the issues that they purport to cover. Since so many have previously been used to address the potential of sexual harassment in schools regarding male students paying inappropriate attention to female students, it’s clear other practices, like courses on respect and harassment, may be needed to fill this gap. These initiatives would shift the focus of school policies. “Is it possible that we can educate our boys to not be ‘distracted’ by their peers and not engage in misogyny and objectification of women's bodies?” asks Riddhi Sandil, a psychologist and co-founder of the Sexuality, Women and Gender Project at Teachers College at Columbia University.

“ I think we live in a culture that’s so used to looking at issues of harassment and assault through the wrong end of the telescope,” Bates says, “that it would be really refreshing to see somebody turn it around and focus on the kind of behavior that is directed at girls rather than to police girls’ own clothing.”

There’s a growing interest in making dress codes as gender-neutral as possible as a means of reducing sexism and LGBT discrimination. But even beyond policy changes, students say there needs to be a fundamental shift in admitting that teachers and administrators come in with their own set of biases, which they may bring to creating and enforcing school rules. “I feel like there’s this misconception … that you can separate your prejudice from your profession, because so often prejudice is unconscious,” says Vela. “The biggest piece of advice I can offer is to recognize that.”

In order to combat latent prejudices, schools must first acknowledge that they exist.

* This article previously stated that Arkansas's entire statewide dress code exclusively applies to females. We regret the error.

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Students are waging war on sexist and racist school dress codes — and they’re winning

Traditional dress codes punish marginalized students disproportionately, but this anti-racist, anti-sexist dress code could fix that.

by Nadra Nittle

Emma Stein was just a freshman when she was cited for a dress code violation at her school, suburban Chicago’s Evanston Township High School. A security guard said her dress was too short, so Stein had to pull a pair of sweatpants over her clothes. She was not punished for the infraction, but it was still a really upsetting experience.

“It added a level of insecurity to this already stressful time,” Stein recalled.

Stein wasn’t the only one troubled by the dress code at the 3,700-student school. In 2016, students staged a protest demanding a new policy that didn’t discriminate along gender or racial lines.

And the school’s administration listened.

“We needed to look at getting a new dress code, and we wanted to make sure it was body-positive and didn’t marginalize students,” the school’s principal, Marcus Campbell, said.

In 2017, Evanston Township High School debuted its new dress code, which permitted tank tops, leggings, hats, and other previously banned items. The policy also stated that students were not to be marginalized based on race, class, gender, sexual orientation, or other identity markers.  

The story of Evanston Township High School’s dress code is an increasingly common one. As dress code controversies sweep the education system , parents and students are fighting back against policies that they see as sexist, racist, or both. And more and more schools are listening to these protests, adopting guidelines that reflect a new understanding of what constitutes “appropriate” student dress.

Oregon NOW’s model dress code has had an international impact

Adopting a new dress code isn’t easy when most existing policies are several years old and contain many of the biases schools are edging away from now. So, the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for Women devised a model policy for Portland Public Schools that took effect in 2016 and has since spread across the country.

School districts such as Evanston’s District 202 and California’s San Jose Unified have either borrowed heavily from the dress code policy or adopted it outright. Praised for being inclusive, progressive, and body-positive, the Oregon NOW model may be the foundation for the dress code policies of the future.

“Boys can dress like girls, and girls can dress like boys. You can be trans. You can be cis. ... You can wear whatever you want.”

“Boys can dress like girls, and girls can dress like boys,” explained Oregon NOW president Lisa Frack about the code. “You can be trans. You can be cis. Part and parcel on our mind is whoever you are, you can wear whatever you want.”

Within reason, that is. Clothing featuring images of drugs, alcohol, or obscenities is out, as is gang attire. Still, the dress code affords students a great deal of freedom to present themselves how they see fit. The main dictate is: “You have to cover your parts,” Frack said. But how students do so is up to them. They can wear short clothing, leggings, and tank tops — all garments that have been the source of school dress code conflicts.

Oregon NOW turned its model into Portland Public Schools’ official policy by approaching the school board about it during a 2015 meeting where students raised complaints about the existing code, Frack said. The board quickly agreed to form a working group, a mixture of Oregon NOW members and educators, to develop new guidelines. A few months later, the board agreed to implement the model for the 2016–2017 school year. Frack calls the dress code “the fastest advocacy” she’s worked on to date.

The policy has sparked interest from school officials in both the US and Canada, Frack said. Administrators from Evanston’s District 202, which consists only of Evanston Township High School, reviewed the Oregon model after 300 students protested and asked for changes to be made to the previous policy.

The demonstration prompted Campbell, assistant superintendent as well as principal, to research alternatives online, leading him to the Oregon NOW dress code. He and four Evanston Township High School assistant principals looked over the dress code piece by piece to see if it aligned with the high school’s values. They agreed that it did, and so they presented it to the superintendent, who signed off on it. The new policy, along with an equity statement penned by District 202 administrators, took effect during the 2017–2018 school year.

“I remember last year, a Latinx-identifying kid wore a sombrero two days in a row,” Campbell said. “Seeing him signals that it’s a different kind of school where kids can be free to wear what they want to wear, to express themselves, as long as it doesn’t glorify hate speech or violence, those kinds of things.”

The Oregon model also allows students to wear their hair as they please, an ongoing issue for both African Americans and Native Americans in schools . As recently as August, two religious schools faced criticism for telling black children they couldn’t attend classes because of their hairstyles. At A Book’s Christian Academy in Florida, school officials turned away a 6-year-old black boy for wearing dreadlocks . His family ultimately withdrew him from the school. Later that month, an African-American girl at Christ the King Elementary School in Terrytown, Louisiana, was forced out of class for wearing her hair in braided extensions , a popular black hairstyle that school officials said they banned over the summer.

Hearing about these sorts of dress code scandals drove Oregon NOW to write its model policy. “There was no answer,” Frack said. “Everybody’s got the problem, but what’s the answer? We’re a super small organization, but we thought we could do something besides saying, ‘Doesn’t this stink?’ We could write a model code, and it could be progressive, feminist, and anti-racist.”

Historically, school dress codes in the US have been anything but. While many schools continue to impose dress codes shaped by outmoded race, class, and gender constructs, a growing number are addressing how their policies disproportionately affect certain groups of students more than others, and they are letting students dress mostly as they please.

Students are challenging schools to devise fair and equitable dress codes

Dane Caldwell-Holden, director of student services for the San Jose Unified School District, didn’t realize how dress codes targeted certain groups of students until his district came under fire for its policy. “I’ll be honest,” he said. “As a teacher and administrator, I never gave a thought about that.”

Then, in 2015, a female student was pulled out of class and told to change into a baggy pair of shorts because hers didn’t pass the “fingertip test.” (Many schools say that shorts, skirts, or dresses are too short if they don’t hang past a student’s fingertips.) Humiliated, the student decided to fight the dress code. She and her mother spoke to school officials about how the policy harmed girls, and the following year, her mother sent Caldwell-Holden a link to Oregon NOW’s model.

After he reviewed that policy, Caldwell-Holden consulted with SJUSD’s associate superintendent and rewrote the dress code guidelines in the district handbook based on the Oregon model. District officials and school principals reviewed and revised the policy over several months, and in early 2017, the superintendent presented it to the school board and community members. In June 2017, the board voted to approve the new dress code.

The new policy permits spaghetti straps, halter tops, and short shorts. The previous code in his district had been in use for about 15 years, Caldwell-Holden said, pointing out that’s the case for a number of California districts. Typically, the state develops some sample codes, and school districts adopt one.

“When you look at dress codes, they all look remarkably similar”

“Board policies tend to be replicated,” Caldwell-Holden said. “When you look at dress codes, they all look remarkably similar.”

The old San Jose dress code was never meant to body-shame girls, he said, but to prevent youth from wearing truly disruptive apparel to school. He considers such clothing to be gang attire or T-shirts with violent or profane messages. Rather than direct their attention to these sorts of violations, faculty members unevenly applied the dress code, citing girls nearly all of the time.

“That was completely unfair,” Caldwell-Holden said.

Since about 2010, the disparate impact that school dress codes have on girls and young women has received more attention, according to Todd DeMitchell , a University of New Hampshire professor of education and justice studies. He’s authored two books about dress codes: The Challenges of Mandating School Uniforms in the Public Schools and Student Dress Codes and the First Amendment . DeMitchell can’t point to any one event in the past decade that led to more focus on the discriminatory aspects of dress codes.

“It’s probably the accumulation of a number of policy streams,” he said. “And stories of female students disproportionately being singled out over male students started to be put into more of the popular press. It’s no one single thing, but we do see the news reporting a number of shaming incidents based on student attire.”

He recalled that in 2014, an Orange Park, Florida, high school student was forced to wear a “shame suit” consisting of a shirt and pants printed with the words “dress code violation” because the school considered her clothing too short. The story became national news fodder, complete with photographs of the student in the humiliating outfit. Protests and photographic evidence of rigid policies have driven the school dress code debate this decade, but DeMitchell also points out that social media has contributed as well. The rise of social media and video-sharing websites like YouTube has allowed student dress code complaints to reach critical mass.

Whether student complaints about dress codes go viral or stay local, they have the power to effect change. Carrie Truitt , a member of the Marion County school board in Kentucky, became interested in adopting a new dress code after a 5-foot-10 high school student, who was wearing business attire for Dress for Success Day, was told her dress was too short. The student’s father complained, arguing that male students who wear shorts the same length as his daughter’s dress do not receive citations. Truitt thought the parent had a point and began researching dress codes, leading her to Oregon NOW’s model.

“We have a little bit of bias in enforcement,” Truitt admitted. “I don’t know if we can go as far as Oregon NOW in Kentucky; you have to take into account perceptions and beliefs.”

For example, the idea that a tube top is acceptable to wear to school might rub some community members the wrong way, she said. But Marion County is a fairly liberal community, and school leaders will likely take an interest in a progressive new dress code if they know girls typically get the most citations, Truitt explained.

Not every school or district is open to changing its dress code. In fact, some schools continue to spark controversy with policies that shame female students and police their bodies.

Dress codes have consistently policed gender

In April, Florida teen Lizzy Martinez didn’t want her sunburned skin to get any more irritated, so she showed up to Braden River High School with a long-sleeved shirt and no bra. When she was abruptly pulled out of class, she was confused as to why.

Although the dress code at her school in Bradenton, Florida, did not specify that girls must wear bras, Martinez said that her teacher complained and had her removed from class for being a distraction.

“The dean asked me if I was wearing a bra,” she said. “They made me put a shirt on over my shirt, and band-aids over my nipples.”

But that’s not all. Martinez, 17, said that she was also asked to stand up, jump up and down, and move around, “so the dean could see the motion in my breasts.”

Mitchell Teitelbaum, general counsel for Manatee County School District, said that student privacy laws prevent him from getting into specifics about Martinez’s account of events.  

“There is a dispute as to the underlying facts that transpired at the school that day,” he said. But Teitelbaum added that “this district was clear it could have been handled better.”

The ordeal resulted in Martinez missing two hours of class time that day, she said. Altogether, the teen estimates that she missed about a week and a half of school because of the stress of the situation. Teachers discussed what happened to her with students, and many misrepresented the facts, she said.

“I felt really, like, attacked, singled out,” Martinez said.

But she and her mother did not keep quiet about the incident, which became a national news story . Martinez took to Twitter to describe how she’d been treated , and she and her mother both spoke to the press. Her dress code infraction fueled more debate about how these policies sexualize young women.

“It crossed a line,” said Emma Roth, a fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project. “We have seen dress code enforcement problems pop up all across the country. School administrators disproportionately enforce dress codes against girls and subgroups of girls — girls of color, gender non-conforming girls, trans girls, girls with curvier body types.”

The ACLU has traded letters with Braden River High about Martinez’s treatment, but so far no resolution has been reached, Roth said.  

“They claim they’ve taken some kind of corrective measures, but we don’t know what those corrective measures are,” she said. “We find their response completely unsatisfactory.”

The ACLU would like the school to train teachers to avoid such incidents from happening in the future. They also want the faculty to stop, as Roth put it, “harassing” students who violate the dress code. That means no requests for youth to make any physical movements because of dress code violations, Roth explained. The Oregon NOW model, for instance, prohibits staff enforcing these policies from ordering students to bend over, hold up their arms, or make other motions.  

Teitelbaum disputes Roth’s characterization of the school district’s action. Since the controversy, he says Manatee County has provided staff trainings and clarified wording in the dress code about what constitutes distracting or disruptive attire .

Martinez wants schools to exercise more sensitivity when it comes to student dress. “Nowadays, there’s all these different genders or students who don’t conform to one gender,” she said. “It’s totally unfair to say to somebody, ‘Girls have to dress and act this way, and boys have to dress and act this way.’”

LGBTQ youth are vulnerable to school dress code policies

Schools nationally have tried to prevent LGBTQ youth from wearing their preferred attire to prom , homecoming, graduation, and other high-profile events. But choosing clothing for school can be a daily struggle for gender-nonconforming students because dress codes have historically served to make students heed traditional gender roles. And a scan of school dress codes from several decades ago make it clear how administrators viewed gender through a narrow lens. Policies dictated that girls wear skirts, dresses, or blouses.

But boys had to conform to strict gender roles, too. In the early 1960s, the dress code at Pius X High School in Downey , California, cautioned boys as follows:

“Two extremes are to be avoided: both a careless, untidy appearance, and a vain, effeminate use of extreme fashions. What the school seeks to promote in a student is a clean, neat, well-groomed, manly appearance.”

The expectation for a “manly appearance” is why boys, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, continue to face school earring bans. Plus, some schools, such as North Carolina’s public K–8 Charter Day School, require girls to wear skirts .

Increasingly, students are challenging gender-based dress codes, and GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) is one of many organizations advocating for them. In 2015, it updated its model district policy for transgender and gender-nonconforming students . The policy includes guidance about student attire, stating that dress codes may not be based on gender and that students have the right to dress in accordance with their gender identity. Moreover, schools can’t use dress codes to target transgender and gender-nonconforming students.

Ikaika Regidor, GLSEN’s director of education and youth programs, said that he understands that schools have dress code policies to prepare students for adulthood and the workforce, but the enforcement of the policies is often problematic.

“We ended up getting into a place in which some groups of students end up getting hurt more than others,” he said. Students feel, “I’m coming to school. I’m being my authentic self,” only to be told they can’t, he continued.

Regidor said that schools need more training and need to streamline who enforces dress codes. Doing so ensures the staffers imposing these policies on students have the tools to do so fairly, properly, and sensitively to gender-nonconforming youth. GLSEN offers training to schools and educates students about their rights as well. The organization teamed up with the ACLU to give youth a wallet-sized card they can show to administrators who wrongfully cite them for dress code violations.

To avoid litigation, more school districts have implemented gender-neutral dress codes. In 2015, Puerto Rico, where students wear uniforms, changed its policy to permit boys to wear skirts and girls to wear pants. It’s a move GLSEN urges more school systems to make. Regidor said some school officials are ignorant about best practices for dress codes and LGBTQ youth. But once they’re educated, they stop enforcing discriminatory policies. Sometimes, though, the discrimination is intended.

“We could try to train them,” he said. “We could try to change hearts and minds, but we also know there are some administrators who have biases. There’s still work to be done by schools, by states.”

Disciplined for wearing braids to school

Deanna and Mya Cook object to how dress codes have long regulated both gender and race. The twins attend a Boston-area charter school that dictates skirt length, shoe color, nail polish, and makeup . But the girls never thought they’d get in trouble for wearing braided extensions. Last year, that’s exactly what happened.

Adopted by white parents, the girls said they got braids for the first time to connect with their African-American heritage. When they showed up at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School with the hairstyles, however, the school disciplined both girls, now 17. Mystic Valley did not respond to Vox’s request for comment about its dress code.

“When we came back to school, we were told braids were not allowed,” Mya said. “They were inappropriate, drastic, needed to be fixed. It really hurt me to my core. I didn’t know what to do because braids meant a lot to me, and they kept telling me to take them out.”

She thought she’d be expelled, and no one would be the wiser. But the school’s treatment of the Cook sisters garnered media attention, and the ACLU, the NAACP, and other groups advocated for the girls.

After a complaint was filed with the state accusing the school’s dress code of being discriminatory, Mystic Valley relented. The school now permits braids, but the twins say it has implemented new rules they believe are retaliatory. Black hair ties, the most common color available in stores, are forbidden; students must wear either navy blue or white hair ties to match the school uniform colors, they said. The girls are not allowed to accessorize their braids with clips, clasps, or beads either.   

Similar incidents keep happening to black girls, who are disproportionately pushed out of school due to dress code violations, according to the National Women’s Law Center “Dress Coded” report . Their bodies, hair, and hair accessories such as head wraps are policed more, the study found.

“Many dress code policies include a lot of vague and subjective language that really rubs against our biases”

“Many dress code policies include a lot of vague and subjective language that really rubs against our biases,” said Nia Evans, NWLC’s manager of campaign and digital strategies for education. “They include words like ‘appropriate,’ ‘not distracting.’ Because of racism and sexism, I think there are black girls who have kinky, natural hair and are not perceived as clean or appropriate.”

She said rigid dress codes signal to female students that their bodies are a problem. Black girls are uniquely vulnerable because they’re already more likely than other female students to be suspended from school. Evans argues that forcing them out of class for any reason increases their chances of quitting school and entering the prison system. Accordingly, missing class because of dress code citations may have serious consequences.

Concerns about liberal dress code policies

As schools implement new dress codes in an effort to make these policies more equitable for students, they still contend with some doubts and concerns from community members. When San Jose Unified updated its dress code, some school officials and parents feared that a more lax policy would result in girls showing up to school in attire more fit for the nightclub than for school. Caldwell-Holden says that hasn’t happened. Instead, he rarely hears about schools issuing dress code citations and no longer receives complaints from students about the policy.

So far, the district has received just one nasty comment about its new code, he said. Sent in August 2017, it said, “I am just writing to say how disgusted I was to read … that halter tops, spaghetti straps, and short shorts will be allowed in school now. Seems to be that you are following in the new California tradition: slut everything up and dumb everything down.”

But there was a twist. The writer ended the comment by remarking, “I’m sure glad I don’t have kids in school.”

Actual parents have been highly supportive of the change, according to Caldwell-Holden. A few have worried that it might be harder to get kids to follow the rules they set at home about appropriate dress, but that’s it, he said.

Before Portland Public Schools adopted Oregon NOW’s policy, some community members expressed fear that students would abuse the policy and that girls in particular “would show up in bikinis,” Frack recalled. Concerns about the hypersexualization of girls in society are valid, but body-shaming students won’t solve the problem, she said.

“They’re just dressing the way they’re told to dress,” Frack explained. The answer isn’t “we’re going to correct our hypersexualized culture by blaming you.”

While some community members worried that students would dress provocatively, others feared that a less formal code would fail to prepare students for professional life.

“We’re not raising all of our kids to work in a bank. Some are going to have jobs where they don’t have a collar.”

But, Frack pointed out, “We’re not raising all of our kids to work in a bank. Some are going to have jobs where they don’t have a collar.”

Good school dress codes show compassion for students and begin with an equity statement, according to the “Dress Coded” report. Evanston’s District 202 dress code states that it “does not reinforce stereotypes and that [it] does not reinforce or increase marginalization or oppression of any group based on race, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, household income or body type/size.”

“Dress Coded” recommends that policies be culturally sensitive, gender-neutral, body-positive, and not shame students. The report also calls for all staff members who enforce them to receive training. Because most schools don’t collect data about dress code citations, the NWLC advises them to start doing so. A record of these citations gives the public an idea of which students are most often cited and why. Additionally, the organization urges schools to give students a say in dress code policies.

How District 202 changed after updating its dress code

Two years ago, Emma Stein protested outside the District 202 superintendent’s office in a bid to get Evanston Township High to change its dress code. An 11th-grader then, Stein remained at the high school after the Oregon NOW model went into effect her senior year. When the school transitioned to its new dress code, Stein realized that getting dressed in the morning was no longer stressful.

“The amount of anxiety I personally had about even wearing a skirt my grandmother bought me dropped,” she said.

Now in her first year at Northwestern University, Stein recalled how each morning at Evanston Township High, a security guard would scan the students entering campus for dress code violations. The day she received a citation, Stein had been excited to attend an assembly about racial equity. In the end, she found herself derailed by a dress code that framed her appearance unfit for school.  

About five years have passed since then, but Stein said the day of her dress code citation is burned into her memory because it caused her such embarrassment. Still, she knew she wasn’t the only girl with the same experience. Stein said she routinely saw other girls pulled aside by female security guards and teachers because of their dress. The fact that so few boys ever received dress code citations made her question the fairness of the policy.

When the more liberal code took effect, “The attire of the students didn’t change very much,” Stein said. This was the outcome Marcus Campbell expected. He said he believed in his students enough to know they wouldn’t abuse the new policy.

“We’re happy people have found it affirming, so they can focus on learning,” he said.

Campbell and Stein described the first day of school under the new code similarly. Both remember the tension on campus dissipating.

“It felt so great,” Campbell recalled. “That feeling is still palpable. It’s so great to have the administration listen to some very reasonable guidelines.”

Now, it’s largely up to students and their parents to determine which attire works best for school, he said.

Stein said that when the current dress code rolled out, students appeared lighter, less burdened. “It was such a dramatic change,” she said. “The change was almost tangible. At least for me, when this policy was amended, there was this collective sigh of relief.”

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How dress codes criminalize males and sexualize females of color  

By Alyssa Pavlakis, Rachel Roegman | Sep 24, 2018 | Feature Article

Too often, school dress codes are enforced in ways that disproportionately impact students of color — both male and female.  

“I am aware of what makes me feel uncomfortable. If what I wear bothers someone else, it says more about them than me.” — Tyra, a multiracial female student  

“When you have a Black girl and a White girl walking down the hall, and the Black girl gets called out, I mean, that’s the issue.” — Emma, a White female teacher  

Dress codes have always been a point of contention in public schools. Teachers, students, parents, and administrators struggle, often against each other, to determine what is appropriate for school and who should get to decide. Recent headlines in the popular press highlight stories of girls and young women who were forced to wear a sweatshirt over a tank top during a heat wave, put tape over their nipples if they were not wearing a bra, or remove hair extensions. In the era of Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, these news stories highlight ways that seemingly neutral school policies may inequitably impact students based on their gender and race.  

When students are disciplined because of how they are dressed, they lose class time — for a five-minute hallway lecture, 20 minutes to search through a bin of “appropriate” clothes to wear, an hour-long trip home, or even a full-day suspension. Perhaps even worse than losing out on instructional time, they also receive the message — whether explicit or implicit — that there is something wrong with their clothing choices or their bodies. Such messages create unwelcome and potentially even hostile school climates for students whose choice of dress goes against established norms. And students are taking notice and speaking out. A group of New Jersey students, for example, created the hashtag #Iamnotadistraction to push against dress codes that required female students to cover their bodies, implicitly blaming them for distracting males from learning (Krischer, 2018).   

Despite this growing attention, schools continue to enforce dress codes that are explicitly gendered and implicitly aimed at minority cultural groups. The National Women’s Law Center (2018) recently reported that although many dress codes in the Washington, D.C., area included race-neutral language, they specifically banned styles mostly worn by Black girls and women, such as hair wraps. While research on school discipline and its disproportionate impact on Black males has abounded (e.g., Fergus, 2016), the research on racialized effects of dress codes is still emerging. To further investigate this phenomenon, we looked at one high school’s dress code and its differential impact on students.  

A dress code in action  

Lincoln High School (a pseudonym) serves 1,200 students in a small Midwestern urban community. Lincoln’s student body is about 40% White, 35% Black, 10% Latino, and 10% multiracial; about two-thirds of the students are classified as economically disadvantaged.  

In response to school and community members’ concerns about racial inequities in the local schools, a Social Justice Task Force was formed to investigate the problem and develop strategies to address it. This included trainings for all school employees at which they discussed issues at their schools where race may be a factor, implicitly or explicitly. When a task force member informally asked students what issues fit this description, their immediate response was, “The dress code!”  

A different type of dress code is needed that helps schools and students to challenge dominant narratives of who they are or could be.  

To better understand the students’ concern, we surveyed all Lincoln High School students (receiving 384 responses) and randomly sampled 13 teachers to interview. The survey asked students about the frequency with which they followed the dress code, the degree to which they were disciplined about their dress, and their opinions about the dress code more generally. Teacher interviews focused on their beliefs about the dress code, in general, and in relation to race and gender. Ultimately, we hoped to answer the question: To what degree, if at all, does Lincoln High School’s dress code disproportionately affect students based on their gender and/or race?  

Disproportionate enforcement by race and gender  

Lincoln’s dress code forbids clothing that administrators deem too revealing, with specific bans on spaghetti straps and tube tops, visible midriffs or cleavage, and dresses, skirts, and shorts that do not extend past the middle knuckle when arms are straight down. Undergarments (including bra straps) should not be visible, and leggings are prohibited. Head coverings that are not for religious purposes are also not allowed.  

In most cases, students reported similar frequencies of dress code infractions, with White females and Black males reporting slightly higher rates and White males slightly lower rates. This would lead one to expect that dress code infractions would line up with their representation within the school. However, when we look at the likelihood of students being “coded” (i.e., having a school adult ask them to remove or cover a clothing item), we see a different picture (see Figure 1). Black males, Black females, and multiracial females stand out as students who reported being disproportionately coded. On the other hand, White females and White males were much less likely to report being coded. Essentially, survey responses showed that students of color are more likely to be coded for breaking the dress code even if they do so at a similar rate to White students. The disproportionality is even more striking when looking at which students report being disciplined, which may involve a suspension, detention, or being sent home. While only 30 of the 384 survey participants reported being disciplined, they were overwhelmingly Black and multiracial, male and female.  

Another way to look at these data is through the concept of relative risk, or the probability of an event occurring for one subgroup in comparison to that of the group at large. A relative risk score of 1.0 means that there is no difference in terms of the probability of the event occurring to an individual in the subgroup versus in the group at large. Looking at the data through this lens clearly shows that Black males and females and multiracial females report a greater risk of being coded and that Black and multiracial males and multiracial females report a greater risk of being disciplined (see Figure 2).  

Looking at Lincoln High School’s dress code from the perspectives of students and teachers, it quickly becomes clear that racial and gender narratives are at play in students’ experiences of the dress code. Students’ and teachers’ perspectives illustrate two narratives about how students of color are affected differently by the seemingly neutral policy. For males of color, the dress code and the ways it is enforced are related to the larger U.S. narrative that criminalizes them. On the other hand, females of color are sexualized by the dress code and blamed for creating a negative school climate.   

Criminalization of males of color   

Students and teachers of all genders and racial/ethnic backgrounds reported that males of color were most likely to be coded, even if White males had similar dress code infractions. Several males of color said they believed the school was positioning them as criminals or potential criminals. One Black male student thought the rule against hoods was because teachers and administrators were worried that students might “have a weapon in our hoods.” Another male of color, who liked to wear a do-rag to school, said he was always told to “take it off ’cause the cameras can’t recognize me.” He wondered how a do-rag could prevent security personnel from recognizing him when the head covering “doesn’t even cover nothing but my haircut.”   

The dress code as enforced treated males of color as potential threats who needed to be watched over and disciplined.  

Teachers said that there was a need to be able to identify students from the cameras or from a distance, with one sharing an example of a time when a few individuals (not enrolled students) entered the school to start a fight with students. Students, however, found that the targeting of males of color for the head covering rule weakened this argument. If only males of color are coded, while White males wear hats or hoods without comment, then it is clear, to them, that the rule is not about safety and that the issue is not about consistency of enforcement. Rather, the dress code as enforced treated males of color as potential threats who needed to be watched over and disciplined.   

Sexualization and blame of females of color  

Female students consistently reported that the dress code sexualized them, treating common U.S. clothing options, such as a spaghetti strap tank top, as though they were revealing, alluring outfits that distracted male students from learning. Samantha Parsons (2017), who developed a dress code advocacy guide based on her experiences advocating for a gender-neutral policy in her own community, found that dress codes across the country promote narratives of females as objects and potential victims of harassment, assault, and rape because of their clothing choices (and not the actions of their perpetrators).   

Lincoln’s female students believed that they were coded more often partly because of the number of specific rules related to clothing items traditionally worn by young women in the United States, such as skirts and certain styles of shirts. The large number of rules about what they wear, however, did not mean that females of all races were similarly affected, as females of color, especially those who were Black or multiracial, were disproportionately represented in reports of being coded and formally disciplined. When females of color, breaking the dress code at similar rates to White students, get coded more often, it suggests that teachers and administrators see their clothing as too “revealing,” while White female clothing is acceptable. In other words, females of color may be seen as sexual and thus a problem, where White females are not. This experience of females of color presents an example of what Kimberlé Crenshaw has called intersectionality, a way to understand how racism and sexism interact. According to Crenshaw (1989), the “intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism” (p. 140) because racism and sexism are compounded, creating a system of structural oppressions whose effects are particularly intense for women of color.  

By insisting that female bodies are the problem, and focusing specifically on female bodies of color, the school perpetuates the mentality that their bodies are primarily sexual.  

Body type may also be a factor in who is disciplined for dress code violations. One teacher noted, “Dresses are a little touch and go because of girls’ shapes. Typically if you are much smaller, it doesn’t look as risqué.” In other words, two girls could be wearing the same exact piece of clothing, but depending on their body type, one would be out of dress code — and in most cases, those being identified as out of dress code, according to students and teachers, were females of color.   

One teacher reflected on this, sharing that he does not code female students because, “If I ask a girl to change . . . I am afraid of the perception that will put on me as a male teacher. I don’t want to be accused of being a pervert.” However, this teacher may be an outlier, as overall the teachers and administrators at Lincoln High School did not express concerns about sexualizing females of color. Yet by insisting that female bodies are the problem, and focusing specifically on female bodies of color, the school perpetuates the mentality that their bodies are primarily sexual.  

Moving forward  

While several teachers acknowledged concerns about the dress code, some continued to believe the primary issue was not about race, gender, or their intersections, but an issue of inconsistent enforcement. This belief seems to be prevalent across the United States, as Lincoln High School’s dress code is pretty typical. However, Lincoln’s students, and students across the country, recognize that the inconsistency is not a result of random chance but of teachers and administrators’ beliefs about children — that boys of color are potential criminals and that girls of color are sexual beings. Instead of tinkering with specific rules or training teachers to enforce this dress code better, a different type of dress code is needed that helps schools and students to challenge dominant narratives of who they are or could be.  

This work is already underway in several districts across the country, including San José Unified School District (SJUSD) in California and Portland Public Schools (PPS) in Oregon. SJUSD administrators are addressing the ways school dress codes sexualize female students by eliminating gender-specific language in their schools’ dress codes. Instead of calling out specific garments typically worn by girls, such as spaghetti straps or tube tops, SJUSD’s new dress code (2018) states that “Clothing must cover the chest, torso, and lower extremities.” In addition, the district’s written policy begins with the statement that “the responsibility for the dress and grooming of a student rests primarily with the student and his or her parents or guardians and that appropriate dress and grooming contribute to a productive learning environment.” And, importantly, the policy recognizes that asking students to change their clothes takes away from learning time, and it asks administrators to be attentive to how their decisions negatively impact students’ educational opportunities.   

Portland Public Schools, meanwhile, has taken steps to allow head coverings while also making it possible for security personnel to easily identify students. Their dress code states, “Hats and other headwear must allow the face to be visible and not interfere with the line of sight to any student or staff. Hoodies must allow the student face and ears to be visible to staff” (PPS, 2018). This type of rule allows males of color to wear do-rags or baseball caps, which many students at Lincoln High School preferred to do to cover up their hair, while still enabling school personnel to easily identify them.   

Any adoption of a dress code must involve open discussions about how different individuals interpret subjective concepts such as “professional,” “distracting,” and “good taste.” Adults need to be aware of their beliefs about children and young adults and how their beliefs influence their practice: Which students do they call out? Whom do they see as criminals? Whom do they see as distracting? Which infractions do they choose to not see? If a school community fails to ask these questions, female and male students of color will most likely continue to be sexualized or criminalized at the expense of their education.    

References  

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex.  University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989  (1), 139-167.   

Fergus, E. (2016).  Solving disproportionality and achieving equity: A leader’s guide to using data to change hearts and minds.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.  

Krischer, H. (2018, April 17). Is your body appropriate to wear to school?  New York Times.   

National Women’s Law Center. (2018).  Dress coded: Black girls, bodies, and bias in D.C. schools.  Washington, DC: Author  

Parsons, S. (2017).  Not a distraction: An advocacy guide for policy change around school dress code.  n.p.: Author. http://bit.ly/ParsonsNotaDistraction  

Portland Public Schools. (2018).  District dress code policy.  Portland, OR: Jackson Middle School.  

San José Unified School District. (2018).  San José Unified Student Handbook.  San José, CA: Author.  

Citation:  Pavlakis, A. & Roegman, R. (2018) How dress codes criminalize males and sexualize females of color. Phi Delta Kappan , 100 (2), 54-58.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Alyssa Pavlakis

ALYSSA PAVLAKIS   is a master’s student in education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

Rachel Roegman

RACHEL ROEGMAN   is an assistant professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

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Why School Dress Codes Are Often Unfair

Students of color and girls are disproportionately punished for violating these policies.

Dress Codes and Equity in Schools

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While the reasons for instituting dress codes often revolve around equity and safety, research shows these policies affect students unequally.

School dress codes have been a topic of debate between students, parents and administrators for decades. While students have sought out avenues for free expression and individuality through their attire, many schools have instituted these policies in an effort to minimize classroom distractions, reduce emphasis on students' socioeconomic disparities and keep schools safe.

Nearly 20% of public schools in the 2019-2020 school year required students to wear a uniform and 44% enforced a "strict" dress code, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Often schools ban items like hooded sweatshirts, baggy coats or jackets and caps, saying these items make it easier for students to hide drugs or weapons, or harder for staff to identify students. Everyday attire like sweatpants, athletic shorts and leggings are also frequently prohibited.

And while the reasons for instituting dress codes often revolve around equity and safety, research shows these policies affect students unequally, with girls and students of color disproportionately facing consequences. In many cases, enforcement makes these students feel less safe, not more.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that schools that enforce strict dress codes enroll predominantly Black and Hispanic students. The report also found that dress codes "more frequently restrict items typically worn by girls" and that "rules about hair and head coverings can disproportionately impact Black students and those of certain religions and cultures."

“I think that the schools where we see the over-policing of dress and the enforcement of dress codes, it's not surprising that those are mostly students of color," says Courtney Mauldin, an assistant professor of educational leadership in the teaching and leadership department at the Syracuse University School of Education. “There's a lot of traditional, antiquated ideas around what it has to look like to do school. And I think people have good intentions, but they're very slow to change when it rubs up against what they've known.”

The result of these policies, the report found, is that this subset of students often faces more disciplinary action related to their attire, which in turn causes them to be removed from class more frequently and miss out on more instructional time. The report calls on the U.S. Department of Education to provide resources to school districts to help them make their dress code policies more equitable.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has long shown that students of color are disproportionally disciplined , and not just for dress code issues.

In an email statement to U.S. News, the department said it will evaluate "effective ways to share information with school communities regarding ways to fulfill students’ civil rights on this important issue."

Who Do Dress Codes Target?

In 2020, two Black students in Houston were suspended when school administrators determined their hair, which they wore in dreadlocks, did not comply with the school's grooming policy, Houston Public Media reported . Policies on hairstyles are often included in school dress codes.

A group of high school track athletes in Albany, New York, were removed from practice in May for wearing sports bras and no shirts. The male athletes on their team were allowed to go shirtless, the Albany Times Union reports. The athletes were then suspended from school when they launched an online petition about gender bias in the school's dress code.

GAO estimated that 93% of school districts have some kind of dress code or policy, though not all of them are considered "strict." More than 90% of those rules prohibit clothing typically worn by female students: items such as “halter or strapless tops,” “skirts or shorts shorter than mid-thigh,” and “yoga pants or any type of skin tight attire,” the report says. Meanwhile, it found that only 69% of districts were as likely to prohibit male students for wearing similar clothing, like a "muscle shirt."

These policies tend to sexualize female students, says Faith Cardillo, a senior at Union High School in New Jersey.

"There can't be any skin showing," she says. "It's very one-sided and very sexist, to say the least, no matter what. The reasoning that they usually give is so that way you're not distracting anyone."

The GAO report also found that about 60 percent of dress codes require staff members to measure students’ bodies and clothing to make sure they comply, which can involve adults touching students, GAO reported. "Consequently, students, particularly girls, may feel less safe at school," the report states.

Financially, dress codes can also be a challenge for low-income families, especially if they're required to buy specific clothes to adhere to a uniform.

However, income disparities are also among the reasons some schools put dress codes in place. Uniform policies can help to disguise "the haves and have-nots," says David Verta, principal at Hammond Central High School in Indiana.

Other policies significantly affect students of minority racial or cultural groups, the report found. For example, more than 80% of districts ban head coverings such as hats, bandanas and scarves, while only about one-third say they allow religious exemptions and "a few" allow for cultural or medical exemptions.

“Are we actually targeting clothing, or is this specific to targeting a student's identity?" Mauldin says. "Because if we're targeting student's identities, then we're sending a message that you don't belong here and you're disrupting the space simply by being, and that's not the message that we want to send to students, especially if schools are supposed to be these places of learning and joy and belonging.”

What Student and Parents Can Do

Under federal law, dress codes cannot be explicitly discriminatory. While dress codes may specify acceptable types of attire, they cannot differ "based on students’ gender, race, religion or other protected characteristics," according to the American Civil Liberties Union, citing civil rights law and the U.S. Constitution's equal protection guarantee. For example, public schools cannot dictate that male students can't wear a skirt, or female students can't wear a suit and tie, if one is confirmed acceptable for the other.

The ACLU advocates for students to be allowed to wear clothing that's consistent with their gender identity and expression. Gender identity is protected under Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. In June 2021, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights confirmed that sex-based discrimination includes discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Parents should closely examine the school's dress code policy and immediately voice any concerns they have with school or district administrators, says Lydia McNeiley, a college and career coach for the School City of Hammond in Indiana.

"Educators are human and we are learning and making changes, but we have to learn from families if there is something we are missing," she says. "We want students to feel comfortable and happy to be in school."

Student voice is key to effecting change and first-hand stories can help, McNeiley says.

One avenue for student advocacy is social media. "Platforms like TikTok and Instagram allow youth to raise awareness around issues in their schools and community," Mauldin says. "This often gets the attention of school and district leaders."

What Schools Can Do

If dress code issues arise in a classroom, educators should handle them discreetly so as not to embarrass a student, says McNeiley, who was previously a middle school counselor. She says doing this goes a long way in building positive relationships with students.

Often teachers are simply following their school’s policy so as to do their job. But Mauldin challenges educators to question the status quo and think critically about how their school’s dress codes could be problematic. She says administrators should regularly audit their discipline data and see if it reveals any trends of unconscious bias related to race and dress code.

Cardillo says schools and parents should also prioritize educating students at the elementary and middle school levels about boundaries and how to look at their peers respectfully without sexualizing them.

School administrators need to listen to their students and adapt to the changing environment around them, Mauldin says. She notes that formal dress is becoming less a part of work culture than it was years ago, with many jobs offering work from home options.

That was part of the discussion that led to a dress code overhaul in the School City of Hammond, a public school district with nearly 90% students of color. Prior to the pandemic, students were required to wear uniforms: khaki pants and either a white or blue collared shirt. Now, the dress code focuses less on restrictions. Students and staff are now "responsible for managing their own personal 'distractions' without regulating individual students' clothing/self-expression."

The new policy , implemented prior to the 2022-2023 academic year, allows students to wear clothing that is comfortable and expresses their self-identified gender. Students can wear religious attire "without fear of discipline or discrimination," it states.

"Some kids were not happy just because they had to figure out what to wear. It was so easy for them just to put on the khaki pants and a polo," says Verta, whose school is in the School City of Hammond district. "But overall, I think our kids are a lot happier now without it."

It's a policy that McNeiley says she's proud of and hopes other districts can use as a model.

“In general, in education, there has to be some kind of common sense," she says. "Because at the end of the day, you have to go back to the students ... (and do) what's best for them."

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Dress Codes: A Racist, Sexist History and Why They Must be Changed

By Adam Shelburn, High School Junior • IDRA Newsletter • September 2022 •

When students try to stand up against these sets of rules, we are told they are in place to “promote school safety, promote discipline, and enhance the learning environment for all students and staff.”

In reality, school dress codes are a way for a school administration to legally be racist and sexist to students.

Many schools prevent gender expression among students by adding gendered rules into the policies, like policies that state that girls must wear dresses for formal occasions and boys must wear button-down shirts. This gendering causes mental health issues among transgender and gender non-conforming students (Hartnett, 2022).

Additionally, these policies promote gendered stereotypes and, by association, perpetuate sexist ideologies that sustain rape culture (Serena, 2018). This protects the assaulter by using what a student is wearing as an excuse for someone else’s actions against them. Policies that promote gendered stereotypes and sexist ideologies allow blatant sizeism and body shaming of students.

These policies also target students of color. Bringing gender into how students can wear their hair, for example, affects students by preventing them from taking part in certain cultural and familial traditions (Salam, 2021). Native American students are forced to cut their hair short and go against their cultural and familial values (Indian Traders, 2020). Black students are forced to cut off braids or twists in their hair, cutting these students off from their culture dating back over 5,000 years (Allen, 2022).

School dress codes are a way for a school administration to legally be racist and sexist to students.

I am not saying we should remove dress codes from schools. Dress codes can be in place so that students and faculty feel safe. What we need is for districts to see how problematic the current dress codes are and change them to create a better and safer learning environment.

Evanston Township High school in Illinois has put in place policies that allow students to express themselves and create a safer and more equitable learning environment (Marfice, 2017). These new policies allow students to wear what they want as long as: clothing does not depict drugs, violence and other illegal activities; clothing does not contain any hate speech; and clothing covers buttocks, genitals, breasts and nipples.

These new policies promote support for students’ mental, physical and emotional health. Other school districts should do the same. To start, they should review their policies to remove all gendered regulations and terminology that reinforce stereotypes on students (Leung, 2017). Districts and schools can rewrite consequences for breaking dress codes and have actions in place so that students are not targeted.

The simplest thing that districts and schools can do, though, is just to listen to their students. Most of us will just tell you what we need from them to create a more equitable and safe learning environment for all.

Allen, M. (July 14, 2022). The Fascinating History of Braids You Never Knew About. Byrdie

Hartnett, H. (January 11, 2022). School Dress Codes Perpetuate Sexism, Racism, and Transphobia. Planned Parenthood.

Salam, E. (May 15, 2021). Black U.S. high school student forced to cut hair during softball game. The Guardian.

Indian Traders. (September 15, 2020). Why Do Native Americans Wear Their Hair Long? webpage.

Latham Sikes, C. (February 2020). Racial and Gender Disparities in Dress Code Discipline Point to Need for New Approaches in Schools. IDRA Newsletter.

Serena. (January 24, 2018). How dress codes reinforce systemic violence . Anti-Violence Project.

Marfice, C. (August 25, 2017). All Schools Should Look At This Dress Code That Finally Gets It Right . Scary Mommy.

Leung, C. (April 11, 2017). T he dress code is unfair and vague. Here’s how to improve it . The Lowell.

Zhou, L. (October 20, 2015). The Sexism of School Dress Codes. The Atlantic.

A high school junior, Adam Shelburn is a member of IDRA’s 2022 Youth Advisory Board from Mansfield, Texas.

[©2022, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the September 2022 issue of the IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]

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School Dress Codes Aren’t Fair to Everyone, Federal Study Finds

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A North Carolina principal suspended a high school girl for 10 days and banned her from attending graduation and any senior activities because she wore a slightly off-shoulder top to school. An assistant principal in Texas drew on a Black boy’s head in permanent marker to cover up a shaved design in his hair. And a transgender girl in Texas was told not to return to school until she followed the school’s dress code guidelines for boys .

These are only three examples across the country over the past few years demonstrating how school dress codes disproportionately target girls, Black students, and LGBTQ students.

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that not only are school dress codes not equitable, but districts that enforce them strictly also predominantly enroll students of color. The findings come as schools increasingly clash with parents, students, and civil rights advocates over disciplinary procedures used to regulate what students can—and cannot—wear to school.

The report also calls on the U.S. Department of Education to develop resources and guidance to help schools create fairer policies and more equitable ways of enforcing them—particularly when it comes to disciplinary actions that cause students to miss out on learning time.

GAO researchers analyzed dress codes from 236 public school districts (there are more than 13,000 districts) and conducted interviews in three of them from August 2021 to October 2022.

Alyssa Pavlakis, a school administrator from Illinois who has studied school dress codes, said the findings were not a surprise. “It does not shock me that the reports are showing that these school dress codes are disproportionately affecting black and brown students,” she said, “because our schools were built on systems that were supposed to be predominantly for white people.”

Pavlakis’s research , published in 2018 with Rachel Roegman, concluded that school dress codes often sexualize girls, particularly Black girls, and effectively criminalize boys of color as their detentions and school suspensions mount.

What dress codes prohibit and who is impacted

Ninety-three percent of school districts have dress codes or policies on what students wear to school. School and district administrators said the policies promote safety and security for students. Prohibitions against hats or scarves, for instance, allow educators identify who is a student and who is not.

More than 90 percent of those dress codes, however, prohibit clothing typically associated with girls, commonly banning clothing items such as “halter or strapless tops,” “skirts or shorts shorter than mid-thigh,” and “yoga pants or any type of skin tight attire,” the report says.

Many of those policies, for example, prohibit clothing that exposes a student’s midriff. About a quarter of them specifically bar the exposure of “cleavage,” “breasts,” or “nipples,” which are aimed at female students.

Almost 69 percent prohibit items typically associated with boys, such as “muscle tees” and “sagging pants.”

“My girls definitely feel anger towards the school for not educating the boys and making [the girls] aware every day what they wear can be a distraction to the boys,” the report quotes an unnamed parent in one district as saying. Some parents told researchers the policies promote consistency with values their children learn at home.

Other policies fall heavily on students from racial or cultural groups that have traditionally been in the minority, according to the report. More than 80 percent of districts, for example, ban head coverings such as hats, hoodies, bandanas, and scarves, but only one-third of these dress codes specify that they allow religious exemptions, and a few include cultural or medical exemptions. Fifty-nine percent also contain rules about students’ hair, hairstyles, and hair coverings, which may disproportionately impact Black students, according to researchers and the district officials that GAO staff interviewed.

For example, 44 percent of districts with dress codes ban hair wraps, with some specifically naming durags, which are popular among African Americans for protecting curls or kinky hair, or other styles of hair wraps.

The report also cites dress codes with rules specific to natural, textured hair, which disproportionately affect Black students. For example, one district prohibited hair with “excessive curls” and another stated that “hair may be no deeper than two inches when measured from the scalp,” according to the report.

Pavlakis said while the report did not contain details about how dress codes affect transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary students, it’s an important aspect of their inequitable nature.

How districts enforce dress codes

About 60 percent of dress codes make staff members measure students’ bodies and clothing to check adherence to codes—which may involve adults touching students. An estimated 93 percent of dress codes also contain rules with subjective language that leave decisions about dress code compliance open to interpretation, the report says. The interpretations often target LGBTQ and Black students, according to experts quoted in the GAO report.

Schools that enroll predominantly students of color are more likely to enforce strict dress codes, and also more likely to remove students from class for violating them. This is particularly concerning because more than 81 percent of predominantly Black schools (where Black students make up more than 75 percent of the population) and nearly 63 of predominantly Hispanic schools enforce a strict dress code, compared to about 35 percent of predominantly white schools.

“When we take away that instructional time because they’re wearing leggings, we are doing our students a disservice,” Pavlakis said. “And at the end of the day, we’re doing our black and brown students a bigger disservice than anyone else.”

The report also found that schools with a larger number of economically disadvantaged students are more likely to enforce strict dress codes. Dress codes can be challenging for low-income families to adhere to, especially if they’re required to buy specific clothing items, such as uniforms, or can only allow their children to have hairstyles approved by schools, experts quoted in the report said.

Finally, schools that enforce strict dress codes are associated with statistically significant, higher rates of exclusionary discipline—that is, punishments that remove students from the classroom, such as in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, and expulsions.

That means students of color and poor students—most specifically, Black girls—are most likely to face consequences for violating school dress codes, causing them to miss class time. The more class they miss, the more likely it is that they will fall behind in school.

While dress code violations do not often result directly in exclusionary discipline such as suspensions and expulsions, an estimated 44 percent of dress codes outlined “informal” removal policies, such as taking a student out of class without documenting it as a suspension.

Districts also commonly list some consequences for violations of their dress code policies, such as requiring students to change clothes, imposing detention, and calling parents or guardians.

“In order for students to get to the point where they can learn, they need to feel a sense of belonging. They need to feel cared for and loved,” Pavlakis said.

“If we spend part of our day telling students, ‘you don’t look the right way. You’re not dressed the right way, you could be unsafe because you have a hat or a hood on,’ kids aren’t going to feel loved supported a sense of belonging,”

A version of this article appeared in the November 23, 2022 edition of Education Week as School Dress Codes Aren’t Fair to Everyone, Federal Study Finds

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‘Sexist,’ ‘Racist,’ ‘Classist’: Georgia 8th Grader Challenges School Dress Code

After being cited for a rip in her jeans on the first day of school, Sophia Trevino has led a protest seeking changes to the district’s dress code, which she says unfairly targets girls.

By Isabella Grullón Paz

Sophia Trevino carefully picked her outfit the night before her first day of eighth grade last month. Two hours before bedtime, and with her mother’s help, she went through her closet and selected a white Los Angeles T-shirt, a new pair of black distressed jeans and Air Force 1 sneakers. Sophia, 13, of course checked with her friends that the outfit was cute; they said it was. Her parents didn’t think twice about the clothes.

But a teacher making sure students were in compliance with the dress code at Simpson Middle School in Cobb County, Ga., did not find her outfit appropriate. Lined up with other students as they came into the school, Sophia was asked to put her hands down by her thighs to measure if the rip in her jeans was lower than her fingertips. It was not. She and 15 other girls were written up before first period.

Every Friday since then, Sophia and other students at Simpson Middle School, about 25 miles north of Atlanta, have worn T-shirts that denounce dress codes as “sexist,” “racist” and “classist.” In protesting the rules, some parents and students have used the Cobb County School District’s laissez-faire policy on face coverings — the district leaves it up to parents if their children wear masks at school — as a cudgel. If adhering to a public health measure is optional, they say, why can’t students opt out of a dress code they see as discriminatory?

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Cobb County School District said that the district’s rules for student dress “encourage a focus on learning for all 110,000 students in Cobb, not on what students prefer to wear.”

The student dress code “includes a minimum standard of dress and exists, per the policy, so students dress in a way that is ‘consistent with the formality of school,’” she added.

Eruptions over dress codes are in no way unique to Sophia’s school; there have been many similar conflicts over the years, often citing racial or sexual bias baked into the policies. In 2019, Houston parents chafed at a principal’s guidance on how they should dress to pick up their children from school that many said was inflected with racism and classism. The year before, a teenage girl in Florida was removed from class because she wasn’t wearing a bra .

According to a 2020 study written in part by Todd A. DeMitchell, a professor at the University of New Hampshire who has researched the litigation of dress codes in public schools, the focus on covering girls’ bodies contributes to the very problem that dress codes seek to address: the inappropriate sexualization of female students.

In an analysis of dress codes at 25 New Hampshire public schools, the researchers found that most had policies specifically targeting girls, with policies on covering breasts, cleavage, collarbones and shoulders. The study notes that some of the garments prohibited in many school policies, such as tank tops and strapless shirts, are “prohibited because they are considered ‘sexy.’”

“The problem with this theme is the ascribing of ‘provocation’ to female clothing,” the study reads. “In other words, the dress choice of females is presumed to be designed to attract attention from males.”

Sabrina Bernadel , a fellow at the National Women’s Law Center, agrees that dress codes are disproportionately restrictive toward women and girls.

“Dress codes are definitely sexist,” she said. “They put the onus on girls to not be distracting or not call attention to themselves instead of putting the onus on all students to respect everyone’s body.”

Ms. Bernadel said that when it comes to students being punished for dress code violations, Black and brown girls get written up the most, followed by Black boys, then white girls, then white boys. For Black girls, the issue is not necessarily around their clothes, but their bodies, which tend to be perceived at early ages as more developed or “adult.”

In the short term, disciplinary actions resulting from getting “dress coded” can lead to less instruction time, hindering academic performance. In the long term, code violations can make girls, and especially Black girls, feel “ashamed of how they express themselves and also what they look like,” Ms. Bernadel said.

The up-to-you policy on mask wearing in Cobb County schools reflects one part of the patchwork of masking policies nationwide . In much of the country, it is up to local officials whether masks are required in schools, and most school districts that require face coverings set the rule for all students regardless of age or vaccination status. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all students, teachers and staff members in schools wear masks , regardless of vaccination status.

“Cobb County says that parents are best suited to decide about whether their child wears a mask, but that they are not best suited to decide what the child wears on their bodies,” Sophia wrote in a petition on Change.org that has over 2,000 signatures.

“I don’t think you can pick and choose that reasoning,” Sarah Trevino, Sophia’s mother and a lawyer in the Atlanta area, said of the county’s stance that parents can choose whether their children wear masks. “If you’re going to use that reasoning whether to put a strip of cloth over your child’s face, it should be the same reasoning if you’re going to put a strip of cloth over their thigh.”

According to the Simpson Middle School dress code , “all shorts, skirts and dresses must be fingertip length” — meaning when students holds their arms at their sides, their longest finger must still touch fabric. The code also specifies that “no skin may be exposed above the fingertip.”

Sophia said her main issue with the dress code was that it singled out girls and made them responsible for boys’ actions.

“In school, they think that the boys are just drooling over our shoulders and our thighs,” Sophia said. “They aren’t. They don’t care. And even if they do, that’s not our fault. That’s theirs.”

The language in the Cobb County School District’s website used to match the language found in the Simpson Middle School dress code ; for its part, the middle school confirmed that it uses language from the district’s rule book. But late last month, after the protest had attracted media attention , the district appeared to have replaced the rules as previously posted online with a dress code that makes no explicit reference to the “fingertip” rule. The district spokeswoman denied that either the district’s or Simpson Middle School’s dress code had changed.

Like many school dress codes, the Cobb County School District’s policy emphasizes the avoidance of distractions to learning. “All students shall be required to maintain the level of personal hygiene necessary to ensure a healthful school environment,” the policy reads , “and to refrain from any mode of dress which proves to contribute to any disruption of school functions.”

With her petition and the Friday protests, which she says have been joined by 50 to 60 students since they began, Sophia hopes to get the school district’s dress code changed to something gender-neutral and inclusive. Her solution? A dress code that is simply “shirts, bottoms, shoes.”

Such a policy would allow tops that show the abdomen, midriff, neck lines and cleavage and bottoms could expose legs, thighs and hips. Any outfit would need to cover the groin, buttocks and nipples.

She said that her protest and her proposed dress code haven’t received “too much” backlash, and that teachers and members of the community seem to be supportive of her efforts. Sometimes, though, she has to shoot dirty looks at teachers who she thinks are judging her.

An earlier version of this article attributed an erroneous distinction to Cobb County, Ga. It is not “the only county in Georgia that has made masks optional for students.”

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Upper Level Writing Requirement Research Papers

“dress coded” a distraction and disruption: sex-and-race-based discrimination and speech restriction in public school dress codes.

Elizabeth "Bitsy" Skerry , American University Washington College of Law Follow

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Skerry, Elizabeth "Bitsy", "“Dress Coded” A Distraction and Disruption: Sex-and-Race-Based Discrimination and Speech Restriction in Public School Dress Codes" (2020). Upper Level Writing Requirement Research Papers . 48. https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/stu_upperlevel_papers/48

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/schools-say-dress-codes-promote-discipline-but-many-black-students-see-traces-of-racism

Schools say dress codes promote discipline, but many Black students see traces of racism

For as long as schools have policed hairstyles as part of their dress codes, some students have seen the rules as attempts to deny their cultural and religious identities.

Nowhere have school rules on hair been a bigger flashpoint than in Texas , where a trial this week is set to determine whether high school administrators can continue punishing a Black teenager for refusing to cut his hair. The 18-year-old student, Darryl George, who wears his hair in locs tied atop his head, has been kept out of his classroom since the start of the school year.

To school administrators, strict dress codes can be tools for promoting uniformity and discipline. But advocates say the codes disproportionately affect students of color and the punishments disrupt learning. Under pressure, many schools in Texas have removed boys-only hair length rules, while hundreds of districts maintain hair restrictions written into their dress codes.

Schools that enforce strict dress codes have higher rates of punishment that take students away from learning, such as suspensions and expulsions, according to an October 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office. The report called on the U.S. Department of Education to provide resources to help schools design more equitable dress codes.

In stringent public school dress codes, some see vestiges of racist efforts to control the appearance of Black people dating back to slavery. In the 1700s, South Carolina’s “Negro Act” made it illegal for Black people to dress “above their condition.” Long after slavery was abolished, Black Americans were still stigmatized for not adopting grooming habits that fit white, European beauty standards and norms.

WATCH: The effort to ban hairstyle discrimination nationwide

Braids and other hairstyles carry cultural significance for many African Americans. They served as methods of communication across African societies, including to identify tribal affiliation or marriage status, and as clues to safety and freedom for those who were captured and enslaved, historians say. But many Black Americans have felt pressure to straighten curly hair or keep it cut short.

Whether in professional workplaces, social clubs or schools, research has shown that such beauty norms and grooming standards have inflicted physical, psychological and economic harm on Black people and other people of color.

Dress codes are built upon regulations that stretch back decades, which explains why they often are complex, said Courtney Mauldin, a professor at Syracuse University’s School of Education.

“Schools were not designed with Black children in mind,” she said. “Our forefathers of education were all white men who set the tone for what schools would be … and what the purposes are of schooling — one of those being conformity. That’s one of the key ideas that was actually introduced in the 1800s.”

In some cases, students and advocates have pushed back successfully.

In 2017, then-15-year-old Black twins, Deanna and Mya Cook, were punished for wearing box braids with extensions at their charter school in Malden, Massachusetts. The sisters were told their hair did not comply with the school dress code. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed a complaint, and the state attorney general said the school policies against extensions and other hairstyles appeared to violate racial discrimination laws.

“You don’t expect to get in trouble for your hair,” said Mya Cook, now 22 and a recent graduate from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “But we see it happen. Administrators are able to retaliate against students and use that as a form of control and oppression. And since there’s no policy in place, they’re able to get away with it.”

WATCH: How hair discrimination impacts Black Americans in their personal lives and the workplace

Schools with higher percentages of Black and Hispanic students are more likely to enforce strict dress codes, and schools in the South are twice as likely to enforce strict dress codes as those in the Northeast, according to the GAO report. In the subregion including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, 71 percent of public schools have strict dress codes — the highest in the country, the report said.

School districts have argued that strict dress codes increase academic performance, encourage discipline and good hygiene and help to limit distractions.

At Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, where Darryl George is a junior, Superintendent Greg Poole has compared the district’s grooming policies to military practices. In a full-page advertisement in the Houston Chronicle last month, Poole said service members “realize being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity, and being part of something bigger than yourself.”

George has been serving either in-school suspension or spending time at an off-site disciplinary program since the end of August. His family was denied a religious exemption and has argued his locs have cultural significance.

George’s family has also filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a federal civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with the school district. The lawsuits allege the state and district failed to enforce the CROWN Act, which prohibits race-based hair discrimination and took effect in Texas in September.

Asking students to change how they wear their hair for the sake of uniformity is a proxy for racism, said U.S. Rep Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat who has championed the CROWN Act.

“To be confronted with this unnecessary discrimination, which has nothing to do with your ability to learn, has nothing to do with your ability to sit in a classroom, has nothing to do with your ability to thrive academically, is wrong,” she said.

In 2020, the same high school told a Black male student that he had to cut his dreadlocks to return to school or participate in graduation. In recent years several other Texas high schools have told Black students their hair violated dress code policies. The ACLU has filed lawsuits in a couple cases, including against Magnolia Independent School District, which ultimately ended up removing their hair restrictions from the dress code.

In 2020, the ACLU of Texas identified 477 school districts with boys-only hair length rules. Since then, half have  removed the restrictions  from their policies, according to an ACLU report. It argues for more equitable dress codes, noting Black students are more likely to face disciplinary action.

Hair length rules applying to boys at Texas schools also unfairly target transgender and non-binary students, said Chloe Kempf, an attorney at the ACLU of Texas.

The trial Thursday is being held in state court in Anahuac, Texas, to decide whether George’s high school is violating the CROWN Act through dress code restrictions limiting the length of boys’ hair. The decision is expected to set precedent in a state where several districts have similar policies.

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Home — Essay Samples — Business — Dress Code — The Dress Code Debate: Argumets For and Against

The Dress Code Debate: Argumets for and Against

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Published: Sep 7, 2023

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Arguments for dress codes, arguments against dress codes, the role of context in dress code arguments, you may also like.

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4 Things Public Schools Can and Can’t Do When It Comes to Dress Codes

Most students have encountered school dress codes in one form or another – from bans on spaghetti straps or crop tops, to restrictions on certain hair styles, hair length, and head coverings. Despite how common they are, school dress codes and grooming policies often reflect and reinforce outdated and sexist stereotypes, and may be disproportionately enforced against students who are more likely to be policed or perceived as deviant by school officials.

School dress codes, for example, may reflect the sexist and harmful view that girls’ bodies are inherently vulgar or inappropriate , that boys will be “distracted” by girls’ bodies, and that girls’ dress and appearance require more regulation than that of boys. Such policies also may punish LGBTQ+ students for not conforming with rigid and binary gender norms about proper behavior and appearance. Moreover, students of color – and especially Black girls and other girls of color – are disproportionately targeted for dress code enforcement because of intersecting race and gender stereotypes. Black girls, in particular, are often seen as less innocent and more adult-like, aggressive and threatening, and needing less support and protection – often known as the “adultification bias.”

You may be left wondering where the line is between a permissible dress code and unlawful discrimination. Here’s the short answer: While public schools are allowed to have dress codes and uniform policies, they cannot discriminate against certain students or censor student expression.

Here are a few of the basics on what public schools can and cannot do when it comes to dress codes:

Dress codes can’t be explicitly discriminatory.

That means that while dress codes may specify types of attire that are acceptable, these requirements may not differ based on students’ gender, race, religion, or other protected characteristics. Under federal laws protecting against discrimination in education – including Title IX , Title VI , and the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantee, public schools cannot enforce a dress code based on gender- or race-based stereotypes about appropriate dress or appearance. For example, a public school cannot require girls, and only girls, to wear skirts or dresse s, or require boys, but not girls, to wear short hair . This also goes for special events and occassions – such as prom , graduation , or yearbook photos . For example, while a public school can require “formal attire” to be worn at special events, it may not require that girls, and only girls, wear gowns – or that boys, and only boys, wear a suit.

Schools cannot enforce dress codes in ways that discriminate against people for who they are. Students, your body is a not a problem. Know your rights.

All students, whether transgender or cisgender, must be allowed to wear clothing consistent with their gender identity and expression.

This is because the clothing, accessories, and hairstyles we wear are part of how we express our identity, and because schools cannot force students to conform their appearance or behavior based on rigid and discriminatory gender norms and stereotypes. For example, a public school may not enforce a dress and grooming policy that prohibits boys, and only boys, from wearing nail polish , or imposes rigid restrictions on hair length based on gender . Such dress codes marginalize non-binary, transgender, and gender-nonconforming students, and ultimately send the message that these students do not belong.

Dress codes that are unevenly enforced against particular groups of students may violate laws prohibiting discrimination.

Even when a dress code appears to be “neutral” on its face, a public school may violate students’ civil rights by targeting enforcement of its dress code against certain groups of students. For example, public school dress codes that ban “cleavage” or “bra straps” – or impose restrictions on the length of shorts or skirts – are often targeted against girls and invites unnecessary and excessive policing of girls’ bodies in schools . The ACLU has expressed concerns about potential discrimination where a school targeted dress code sweeps against girl students , and where a school district suspended girl athletes for practicing in sports bras, while allowing boy athletes to practice without shirts .

Moreover, Black students and other students of color are often more harshly disciplined and targeted for dress code enforcement based on racist stereotypes about proper appearance and behavior. Notably, dress and grooming policies that prohibit certain hairstyles – including hair extensions, braids, or locs – often disproportionately punish Black students and are rooted in racist standards of professionalism and respectability. In 2018, the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund raised legal concerns when a Florida school turned away a Black first grader for wearing locs on his first day of school. However, it is worth noting that courts have been less consistent about applying antidiscrimination laws to grooming policies, and your protections may vary greatly based on where you live.

Restrictions on head coverings and certain hairstyles also raise significant concerns regarding religious and racial discrimination. Students from some religious backgrounds may wear head coverings or longer hairstyles due to religious reasons, and public schools may not impose restrictions that conflict with students’ religious freedom.

Schools can’t discriminate based on the viewpoint expressed by your clothing.

The Supreme Court has recognized that public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The First Amendment prohibits schools from picking and choosing which views students are allowed to express. All views must be treated equally, so long as they are not obscene or disruptive. This means that if a school permits items like t-shirts with slogans, buttons, or wristbands , it has to permit them no matter what message they express .

What this boils down to is that public schools’ authority to impose dress codes is not unlimited. Students should be informed of their rights so they can speak out if there are violations. And school administrators must reexamine their dress codes to ensure that they do not violate students’ civil rights and liberties.

Does your school have a dress code that treats people differently based on gender, race, or other protected characteristics? Let us know by filling out this form .

Dress and Grooming Policies Based on Gender Stereotypes

Does your school or workplace have dress and grooming policies that treat people differently based on gender stereotypes? Share your story with us.

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

Click here for a handy fact sheet outlining your rights related to school dress codes and grooming policies, gender identity, and self-expression. Share this and our latest podcast episode with a friend!

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• Women's Rights
• Women's Rights in Education

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• Wollstonecraft

Dress Codes and Discrimination Against Women

To make a compelling argument, it is necessary to reflect on the most basic assumptions. What capacity is given to mankind that distinguishes us from all other creatures present on Earth? This is reason. Thus, if it is agreed upon that all human beings possess the ability to reason, a capability gifted by God, then it can be accepted that this assumption is innate to both men and women. With reason, the mind is better equipped to triumph over the prejudices that so greatly pervade society. What acquisition allows one human to rise above another? This is virtue. Lastly, God bestowed passions and temptations within the world to teach humankind the necessary lesson of experience through struggle. If this is the case, then these truths – reason, virtue, and experience – are deeply rooted in the nature of being human.

In the current environment of public education, females are disproportionately disciplined compared to their male counterparts in regards to dress codes implemented by public schools around the United States. What is the rationality behind this unfair disparity? Simply, to cultivate a distraction-free learning environment for their male peers. I denounce these nasty customs in which men are free from. In short, I object to the countless females being chastened based on their physical appearances in an attempt to appease the male eye.

I could proceed still further, that enforcing these dress codes targeted towards women are highly disruptive and needless to say, incredibly humiliating. Young girls who are deemed “dress-code violators” are often condemned midst class time, directed to leave and change, or even, ousted from the classroom to return to their homes to acquire a more appropriate attire. How distasteful is it that public school leaders place greater scrutiny, endeavor, and priority in the length of a young woman’s skirt over her attendance in the classroom? These prejudiced policies may hinder a young girl’s sense of self and her ability to realize her positive liberties by forcing her to be more self-conscious of her appearance since she is judged by her male peers, but to also appease school officials in order to not be punished for breaking these rules. Especially, if these rules are affecting a young girl’s education, it is, without a doubt, interfering with her ability to attain reason and to achieve excellence. Isn’t it accepted that mankind, both men and women, were given the divine right to reason and achieve excellence? If so, shouldn’t women have equal rights in acquiring this reason and excellence? Instead, women are molded by society to believe that the male response is incontestably their fault – that their body is provoking negativity. Yet, if women spent half the time concerned over their appearance and its effect on men, much would be accomplished towards her purity of mind and achievement of excellence.

I am convinced, that the only solution available to promote mutual reverence and affections between the two sexes, is for both males and females to be clothed in identical uniforms. This action would not only reduce any attempts of vanity, but it would uphold equality in school and enable both boys and girls to exercise their reason and realize their potential.

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Morning Carpool

Texas Student Sues Over Discrimination After School Demands His Hair Style Violates Dress Code

Posted: May 28, 2024 | Last updated: May 28, 2024

A federal judge is weighing a lawsuit from a Black high school student alleging racial and gender discrimination over his hairstyle. Darryl George, 18, has faced months of punishment from his Texas school district. His case raises critical questions about cultural identity and school dress codes.

Judge Delays Decision on Student’s Discrimination Lawsuit

A federal judge refrained from issuing an immediate ruling on Thursday after hearing arguments about a lawsuit filed by a Black high school student. The student, Darryl George, alleges racial and gender discrimination over his extended punishment for refusing to change his hairstyle.

Hair Policy Keeps Student Out of Class

Darryl George, 18, has been out of his regular high school classes in the Houston area since August 31. The Barbers Hill school district claims his hairstyle violates their dress code.

School District Defends Dress Code

The district argues that George’s tied and twisted locs, when let down, fall below the permissible length according to their policy. They insist other students with locs comply with the same length policy.

Family Files Federal Lawsuit

Darryl George and his mother, Darresha George, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the school district and several officials. The suit also names Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton as defendants.

Allegations of Discrimination

The lawsuit claims the defendants have either participated in or failed to prevent racial and gender discrimination against George. His ongoing punishment over his hairstyle is at the center of these allegations.

Family Stands Firm

Darresha George expressed relief at reaching the court hearing stage. She emphasized that this moment is just another step in their ongoing battle.

Violation of the CROWN Act

The lawsuit argues that George’s punishment violates the CROWN Act, a new state law against race-based hair discrimination. This law, effective since September, protects against penalties for natural hair textures and protective hairstyles.

First Amendment Rights Challenged

The suit also claims George’s First Amendment rights to free speech and expression are being violated. George has spent most of the school year in in-school suspension or an off-site disciplinary program.

Legal Arguments Presented

Allie Booker, George’s attorney, told the judge that the district’s policy is discriminatory and not race neutral. She argued that the school was making religious exemptions but not adhering to the CROWN Act.

Question of Policy Clarity

Booker contended that the school lacked clear policies on hair length differences between boys and girls. She emphasized that self-expression through hairstyle does not need to be tied to religious beliefs to be protected.

District’s Defense

Jonathan Brush, representing the school district, maintained that their policy is race neutral. He argued that differing hair length restrictions for boys and girls do not constitute discrimination.

Ongoing Legal Battle

Brush insisted that the district’s hair length policy would hold up in various settings like workplaces and the military. The case continues as both sides await a judicial decision.

District Argues First Amendment Not Violated

Jonathan Brush, the school district’s attorney, argued that Darryl George’s First Amendment rights aren’t being violated. He claimed the student failed to demonstrate that his hairstyle communicates a message.

Cultural and Religious Significance Highlighted

Darresha George emphasized that her son’s hairstyle holds cultural and religious importance. Historians note that hairstyles like braids carry significant cultural meaning for many African Americans.

Judge Considers Narrowing the Case

Judge Brown indicated he might dismiss Gov. Abbott, AG Paxton, and some claims against school officials from the lawsuit. A final ruling will be issued later.

Previous Rulings on Hair Policies

In February, a state judge ruled that the school’s punishment did not violate the CROWN Act. This policy was also challenged in a 2020 federal lawsuit by two other students, one of whom returned to school after a judge’s temporary injunction.

Emotional Toll on Student

After the hearing, Darryl George declined to comment. His attorney, Allie Booker, mentioned that George is feeling down as he’s struggling to find a summer job.

Fear of Retaliation

Booker expressed concerns that people disagreeing with the case might hold it against George. She noted that this fear has affected his job search efforts.

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