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Essay On School Dress Codes

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Introduction
Dress codes in American high schools have always been a controversial topic, in 1965, the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case caused the supreme court to rule that schools can prohibit forms of expression but must show that allowing it would be a safety risk or interfere with the educational purpose of school (School Dress Codes, 2021). In 2018, The National Center for Education Statistics reported that 50% of US public schools enforced dress codes that violated students’ freedom of expression and religion (School Dress Codes, 2021).
While some dress codes may not be constitutional due to them violating students’ first amendment, many are enforced for students’ safety, due to them preventing violence …show more content…

In 1965, students from Des Moines, Iowa, expressed their opposition to US military involvement in Vietnam by wearing black armbands with a peace symbol (School Dress Codes, 2021). School officials enforced a dress code against the armbands, claiming that they would be distracting and disruptive (School Dress Codes, 2021). Students fought back by filing a complaint to the US Supreme Court in 1969, which ruled in the students favor (School Dress Codes, 2021). This was known as the “Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District” (School Dress Codes, 2021). The decision made by the Supreme Court established a precedent that student dress is protected under the First Amendment (School Dress Codes, 2021). Banning certain symbols in school dress codes limits students’ religious freedom. Some symbols have different meanings to different cultures that complicate such restrictions. For example, the religious symbol of the Star of David, commonly used to signal Jewish faith or heritage, has been banned by some schools because it is used by the Folk Nation street gang (School Dress Codes, 2021). Federal courts tend to rule in favor of students’ First Amendment right to religious freedom and against the school's ban (School Dress Codes, 2021). Several more cases in the United States have challenged the right to freedom of expression based on dress worn to school, such as Timothy Gies, a student in Michigan who was suspended repeatably for wearing t-shirts with peace signs, anarchy symbols, an upside-down American flag, and an anti-war quote from Albert Einstein (Gereluk, 2006). Timothy was informed by an administrator that freedom of expression “did not apply to students”, when he tried to rebel (Gereluk, 2006). In all cases mentioned, students have won the right to wear the various symbols to school under their right to

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