Student Experiences

"I can say being dress coded makes me feel uncomfortable depending on the gender of who is dress coding. Students should not have to feel uncomfortable. Students should be able to walk around the halls wearing clothing of their choice that is appropriate for them without the anxiety that they may be publicly shamed." - Alexia, 8th grade

I, for one, have had many encounters at school regarding dress code, whether it was being physically dress coded or going through the school day wondering if I’ll be dress coded since my shorts didn’t entirely pass my fingertips that day. The feeling of uneasiness while walking past a dean or a particular teacher known to dress code can be overwhelming and, quite frankly, distracting. The fact that a simple dress code at my school can make me so anxious is baffling. My stories even go into the idea of how sexist the dress code is. For example, one day, when I came into the cafeteria for lunch, a guy with his pants halfway down his butt walked right past a girl getting dress coded because her shirt showed a little bit of her stomach when she raised both her hands in the air. You could practically feel the humiliation radiating off the girl and the teacher’s stern glare. A school might point out and say that boys might get distracted from “revealing” clothes, but that shouldn’t be a reason to be taken away from essential classes. If boys get distracted so easily, they should be the ones getting talked to, not the girls wearing the clothes. Most girls at my school have longer arms, meaning they can rarely wear shorts even if it’s hot outside. Even I have to try on all the shorts I find before deciding to buy them from a store just because they might be a little too short and it would be “distracting.” Honestly, it’s hard finding a pair of shorts that are not expensive, my style, comfortable, and in dress code. The dress code is overall unfair and unnecessary for every student on an Alachua County campus, and at this point, it’s ridiculous. -Portia, 8th grade