Persuasive Essay On School Dress Code

School Dress Codes have many underlying problems that can cause emotional and mental health Issues. Uniforms take away the ability to express support for social causes. One example of this was when “Students at Friendly High School in Prince George's County, MD, were not allowed to wear pink shirts to support Breast Cancer Awareness month and 75 students received suspensions for breaking the school's uniform restrictions” (“School Uniforms Pros and Cons…”). This is one of the many cases that shows the problem with school dress code policies and the drastic consequences given as a solution. Policies cause more problems than solutions. Dress codes can be found by some to be sexist towards women, racist towards people of color, and non-LGBTQ

Black girls also face adults’ stereotyped view that they are more sexually provocative because of their race” (“Dress Codes - Top 3…”). Marcus Campbell, the assistant superintendent, and principal of Evanston Township highschool stated “Our young women of color were dress-coded more than our white girls were. So we found it to be racist, we found it to be sexist, we found it to be antiquated. It was not body positive and there was just trouble all around with our dress code, and we knew we needed to make a change” (“Dress Codes - Top

Many girls often compare themselves to others, thinking “why don’t I look like that?” and uniforms only make it worse. Robyn Silverman told NBC News’ Today that “students, especially girls, tend to compare how each other looks in their uniforms. As a body image expert, I hear from students all the time that they feel it allows for a lot of comparison” (“School Uniforms…”). The truth is uniforms do allow for lots of comparison. Oftentimes girls who have a more developed body will get dress coded or sent home because of a piece of clothing that another girl is wearing as well, but because their bodies are different only one is punished for the item of clothing being worn. This is completely unfair, especially because most girls are already very self-conscious about their bodies, and at times teachers aren’t subtle in calling out the girls for violating the dress code making them feel put on the spot. One article showed a statement that the principal of Evanston Township high school made. Which stated: “If certain females were not a certain body type, if they had more curves or they had certain features that were developed, they were dress coded over another young lady who may not have the same features but were wearing the exact same items” (“Dress Codes - Top 3…”). In some schools where uniforms are gendered meaning girls wear skirts and boys wear pants, students