Each morning on announcements, teachers are asked to do a dress code check for the students in their class. They make sure the boys are shaved, ID tags are worn, and the girls are not wearing tank tops under their cardigans, or so they thought. On the first week of school, students were called to to the auditorium to  go over the school rules. Along with the lecture on dos and don’ts, students were refreshed on the district’s dress code. This year principal Drabing brought up a few rules that had not been enforced years before this one. Many students felt outraged after hearing of the enforcement without fully understanding what these rules were about.

Despite concern about boys not being allowed to wear basketball shorts and girls not being allowed to wear tank tops and cardigans, the rules are actually the exact same as last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.

“The guys can still wear the basketball shorts, the shorts just have to be mid-thigh for guys,” principal Lisa Drabing said. “It doesn’t really matter, they just can’t wear pajama bottoms or swim trunks or something like that. A regular pair of shorts, basketball shorts, they can wear those. That’s really nothing, there’s nothing new there for the guys.”.

As for the girls, not all tank tops and cardigans are banned.

“You can wear a tank top or a spaghetti strap as long as it’s covered and it’s not like a see-through, sheer material,” Drabing said. “As long as it’s over and you’re covering it, you’re fine.”

Dress code rules change with the fashions. The faculty has tried to help students start off on the right foot by preparing them for the professional world with rules  on dress and behavior.  

“In any job that you get there’s going to be a dress code to some degree,” Drabing said. “Whatever it is [you do], there’s some dress code standard there. I don’t think you’ll ever get away from it. So it’s really preparing you again to be successful out there.”