“Young women are not a distraction to education. We are not just our body.” -Mari Tufts. School dress codes are implemented to promote learning and safety, however research states that certain rules are too strict. School dress codes are too strict when it comes to students wanting to express themselves with what they wear. It causes students to come to school in fear that what they wear is too inappropriate. School dress codes are too strict because they affect students unequally, claimed to be “too distracting”, and can violate civil rights.
School dress codes affect students unequally. Dress codes affect mainly girls, LGBTQ+ students, and students of color. School dress code seems to target the girls more than boys. A group of high school track athletes in Albany, New York, were removed from practice in May for wearing sports bras and no shirts, even though the male athletes on the team were allowed to go shirtless. In 2020, two black students in Houston were suspended when they wore their hair in dreadlocks. The school dress code also disproportionately impacts LGBTQ+ students. If a student wants to express themselves from what they wear, it sometimes gets taken away from them.
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If someone gets dress-coded for their shoulders showing because it is “too distracting”, then they are seen as the problem. If what someone was wearing was a problem, it should be the one who is getting distracted who is punished, not the person who was dress-coded. The school dress code seems to be targeted towards the girls when it comes to “distracting” clothing. The track athletes that were removed from practice because they wore bras were “too distracting”, but the shirtless guys were not punished. The school dress code shames girls for simply living in their own