High School Dress Codes still anger young women

 

The above photo was taken right after I graduated high school and cut all my hair off to show I was now grown up. I posted it to show you what the style of sun dress was in the 1970s. They have not changed that much and I still wear them in the summer. Florida is quite warm. We were not allowed to wear them to school even though the schools had no air conditioning. Heck, we weren't even allowed to wear shorts. We had a dress code that had to have been from the 1950s and I fought it at every turn.

My first run in was a patch on my jeans. Unlike today, our jeans were not ripped at the factory. It was not the style to have our skin hanging out through skin tight jeans. They were tight, we made sure of that, but if they developed any kind of hole, we put a patch over it and kept going which resulted in my first trip to the office for being out of dress code.  I placed a patch, seen below, on my jeans where there was a hole.

The problem was the hole was on the rear of  the jeans, right across my butt cheek and the administration at Lakeland High School thought it inappropriate so I was sent home to put on a more respectable (their term, not mine) pair. 

The second time I had a run in about dress code was a little more serious. In our student handbook the rule for female students was  the wearing of brassieres. This was in print and demanded that all female students wear one. Now, not that much has changed in the past 47 years. Who the heck is in charge of checking on girls underwear?

In my case, it was my driver's education teacher, a man, also a coach, who demanded as I entered the classroom that I go to the office immediately for not having a bra on. First I asked him why on earth he was looking at my chest so intently that he would notice a bra or not. Then I informed him that he was mistaken, I did have on a bra, and I was not breaking any rules. 

He sent me to the office anyway. When I arrived, the Dean of Women, whose name shall remain undisclosed because I still dislike her, wanted to know why I was back in the office and what on earth had I done now?  I was already guilty, even though I had not even had a chance to explain.

Now, girls' sports bras in 1974 were thin, stretchy, with no support whatsoever, but I wore one. I also had on a western shirt with snap buttons and when the dean continued to argue with me, I pulled those snaps open so quickly she didn't have time to react. 

Of course, then she saw I had on a sports bra and had to send me back to class and not suspend me.  I have never forgotten those incidents and how they made me feel. I never tried to intentionally break the rules but somehow, whatever I wore angered someone. 

Of course, I thought those rules were stupid and still do although I better understand why they have them. The issue today is how geared they are against young women. Boys can wear tank tops in gym and even remove their shirts. Girls can't wear anything even resembling a tank top and camisoles with thin straps, even with built in bras, are a total no no. 

Girls who play volleyball can wear shorts on the court that show their butt cheeks and outlines of their private parts, but no shoulders in school. These look more like bathing suit bottoms to me, but who I am to judge? 

The problem is in all schools where some kind of uniform is not worn. It says a lot for going to khaki pants or skirts and collared shirts. This happened in Pasco County and the school board is supposedly looking in to dress codes. 

This happened at another school in Florida and if I was one of those parents, I would be screaming.

As it is, I am a parent of a boy who is grown. I am a teacher who watches these young women struggle with their identity and sympathize with that struggle. I don't have the answers. I wish I did.