Every school has a dress code within their guidelines. Some schools require their students to wear school uniforms rather than what the students want to wear. Here at Junction City High School the dress code has become a hot topic among students. A majority of students who are girls feel that the dress code specifically targets the girls more than the guys. It appears that girls are stopped more frequently in the hallways for what they are wearing than guys are.

Like with any school, the administrators want the students to be career ready. The administration here at JCHS wants all the students to be able to work in a work environment with little to no distractions and I can understand this side of the argument as well. JCHS is based on career oriented classes for its students to be well prepared for life after high school. The preferred attire at JCHS is “casual attire, reflective of a student who is career ready.”

Every school has a dress code, it’s part of the school. No one exactly has to agree hundred percent with it but it will still be there, however, and will always be a part of the school.

On one hand, the dress code is specifically targeted at the female students. In the JCHS handbook, it’s evident that most of the dress code is aimed towards girls.

One explanation to this is that girls are sexualized more than boys are. There are other schools who have had incidents.

A Canadian teenager, Lindsey Stoker, had one such incident at her school, Beaconsfield High School in Quebec, when she felt that officials were shaming her in front of her classmates. Stoker and her classmates had been asked to stand up so the officials could see if their shorts matched the fingertip length rule of the school. In response to the officials’ actions, Stoker posted flyers all around her school that read: “Don’t humiliate her because she’s wearing shorts. It’s hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.”

Other schools around have had similar incidents in dealing with girls and the dress code. In a more recent incident involving dress code.

A girl by the name of Gabi Finlayson, who attends Lone Peak High School in Utah, went to her school dance wearing a dress she bought while on a trip to Paris with her mother. The dress went below the knee and met school dress code. Rather than feel pretty and like the belle of the ball as she expected to feel, Finlayson was asked to cover her bare shoulders. The problem was that Finlayson’s dress met her school’s dress code expectations.

This appears to be an explanation to why girls are stopped more than boys in schools. The girls are not allowed to wear racer backs, any type of midriff tops, and minimal shorts, skirts, and dresses are to be fingertip length.

When a girl is stopped in the hallway for dress code by an official usually another girl with the exact, if not similar, type of clothing walks by. Does the official stop the other girl as well? No, the other girl is free to walk off and not get in trouble for what she is wearing.

Honestly to me it always looks like the officials stop only certain girls in the hallways. These are the girls who are not in the “popular” crowd which basically means the ones who aren’t sports stars or well known around the school.