“The guys at our school can walk around with their underwear out, but when a teacher notices a girls shorts are too short, it’s immediately not okay,” said sophomore Ruby Andrews Hockings, about our school dress code policy. In the last few years, many students here at C.H.S have expressed confusion and/or doubts about dress code rules in our school. Some believe it may be unequally enforced throughout genders, where others aren’t aware of the outlines following the policy.

When students join highschool, they are met with a lot of information. Some students overlook policies given to them early on, or soon forget about them. This includes the dress code, as many students have communicated lack of understanding when it comes to its policies. An anonymous response in a recent survey simply stated “I don’t know the dress code.” These substandard understandings from students can cause problems when confronting students on clothing violations, because they could have not known the policy. The question “should all grades have more knowledge of  the dress code?” falls to our C.H.S administration. 

The dress code of Charlottesville City Schools says “In November 2018, the Charlottesville School Board unanimously passed a resolution that bans students from wearing clothing that depicts symbols associated with racial hatred and violence.” Most of the enforced dress code here applies to this: the restriction of displaying inappropriate behavior or symbols in fashion items. 

Now to decide how this works for different genders could be tough. When is the line drawn at how short a certain item of clothing can be for two separate genders? “We try to stay away from stereotyping or any gender specific issues with the dress code,” said Doctor Irizarry in an up to date interview. 

In a recent survey, an anonymous replier agreed that they had been personally affected by the dress code. “I am a girl and our dress code is hella hella sexist.” There are no specific rules regarding clothing in the dress code. However, that can cause confusion. Different students who feel like they might have done nothing wrong feel this way because they see their fellow classmates wearing similar clothing but not getting called out for it. Blame for this seems to fall on certain staff members possibly targeting students of different body types. 

Dr Irizarry said “Our main goal is trying not to cause a major disruption in our school building.” What defines these disruptions remains unclear, and there is a possibility for these to grow throughout the building if students voices aren’t heard.