Students share thoughts on dress code
According to the Braswell administration, the current dress code was put into place to promote education, safety, and professionalism. The dress code, found in the district’s student-parent handbook, prohibits the wearing of particular items of clothing, such as shirts that expose the midriff or hats, during school hours.
“We want to promote the idea that students should look professional when coming to the school,” Dawn McCullough, associate principal, said. “We have a dress code as adults and in the building, we adhere to that.”
Beyond the desire to encourage professional dress, enforcing the dress code is intended to maintain a safe learning environment, according to McCullough.
“Some of these rules are just to maintain safety, maintain order, and things like that.” McCullough said. “We wouldn’t want someone to wear a hood over their head with the drawstring all tied, we need to be able to identify who’s in the building.”
Some students like DaNeysha Pittman, 12, agree with McCullough and the rest of administration.
“I feel like we should have a dress code because there’s some stuff y’all shouldn’t be wearing,” Pittman said, “but for the most part it’s okay.”
Amir Paschal, 9, is generally unaffected by the dress code during day-to-day activities on campus.
“I don’t get dress-coded like that so I don’t have any thoughts on it,” Paschal said. “I mean, I haven’t had any problems with it personally.”
Other students feel as if the dress code could stand to be less strict, asserting that enforcement of the code can be dependent on uncontrollable physical qualities, such as height or weight.
“I feel like it’s based on your body type,” Ariona Deener, 9, said. “I’ve worn way worse stuff than other people do, and they’re getting dress-coded for wearing shorts that are close to their knees. All because I’m skinny, that’s not fair.”
Some, like Myah Williams, 12, think that enforcement of the dress code should not change, but the handbook instead should be updated.
“Maybe hats should be off the dress code cause like some people like to wear beanies and it gets cold and it’s cold inside, so I understand,” Williams said.
Nyla Loper, 11, is open to the idea of a meeting between student and administration to discuss the dress code.
“I feel like it’s good to hear from different sides of everybody, so I wouldn’t mind doing it,” Loper said. “We would get to compare a student’s point of view to an administrative point of view and really get everybody’s feelings across.”
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