Pants Do Not Lower Test Scores

Oh middle school, those were the days of crippling self-doubt, dangerously low self-esteem, and fierce desperation for peer acceptance. Personally,I can’t think of middle school without reliving my history of bad haircuts, horrible outfits, and socially awkward behavior. I really would love to forget  those days. These memories were been drudged up, however, when I read about a new dress code of Haven Middle School in Evanston, Illnois. No more leggings, or yoga pants, are to be worn by the female students so as not to distract male student, or hinder, the learning environment. Deep breath.

This new outrageous dress code shocked both the female students and surround community. I was very  impressed by some of the female student comments concerning the new school policy.These girls completely pinpointed  why this is so unfair and  ridiculous. An article posted on the Evanston Review  had a good number of student comments.  For instance, Sophie Hastings, a seventh grader, emailed the Evanston Review  saying ““Not being able to wear leggings because it’s ‘too distracting for boys’ is giving us the impression we should be guilty for what guys do, we just want to be comfortable!” 

AMEN. I think it’s so impressive that a thirteen year old can correctly identify this new dress code’s underlying problem. The problem being, that this code only affects the female students. By excluding boys from the dress code, they are supporting the idea that it is their bodies that are the problem, and boys can’t help but react to them. They should not be shamed, nor punished,  for the way there body looks. It sends a horrible message to these young girls who are already at an age when self-conscious and anxiety is super prevalent. 

 To add more fuel to the flame, girls with more voluptuous shapes were being punished for wearing leggings than their less curvy classmates. Twelve year old Lucy Shapiro was admonished for wearing leggings while her friend was not. Shapiro recounted this experience to the Evanston Review : ““I asked, ‘Why just me?’ and she said it was because I had a different body type than my friend.With all the social expectations of being a girl, it’s already hard enough to pick an outfit without adding in the dress code factor” There is a fine line betwee 

These girls are nailing this. It fills me with happy, warm, fuzzy feelings knowing that young girls are not only directly addressing this issue, but also protesting! The Evanston Review revealed that on March 18th Evanston Middle School’s female students wore leggings and yoga pants to protest the dress code, along with a petition of 500 signatures. Hell yes ladies.  

Unfortunately there has not been any news of whether the dress code has been dropped. I have a bad feeling, however, that this new dress code will not be dismissed. While the administrations mission may be to ” overall positive and respectful learning environment”, I believe they are going about this all wrong. If they want to create a respectful learning environment, maybe they should teach a class on sexuality. Or teach middle school boys to not over sexualize their female classmates, and keep it in their damn pants! It’s incredibly unfair that in order to create a ” respectful learning environment” young girls must be taught the message to be ashamed of their bodies. This dress code is ridiculous and is doing more damage to the girls’ self-esteems, than the boys’ test scores. 

How do you guys feel about this dress code? Do you think it’s fair?