Leggings and the Dress Code
The issue of dress code violations at GCS is a popular topic of discussion among students and teachers. One prohibited article of clothing that is quite controversial is girl’s leggings. This popular piece of clothing is worn often by girls in all grades, and mostly in acceptable and appropriate ways, but this common trend is still a dress code violation. Wearing leggings with a with a short cut shirt is looked at as an inappropriate outfit, especially for a learning environment. However, wearing leggings in an appropriate way, should be allowed to be worn in school. Girls constantly express their annoyance towards the prohibition of leggings and would love to have the rules changed.
One female staff member who asked to be left anonymous commented that she believed that girls should be allowed to wear whatever they want and that she does not agree with the rule. As heard from multiple staff sources, there has been a lot of talk about this issue within the teacher community, and it is apparently an issue of common debate. We asked students what their stance on the issue is, and the responses are mostly quite similar. “ I think that girls should be allowed to wear leggings in school, as long as it’s appropriate it’s not a big deal,” says a GCS freshman girl. “If a girl wants to wear them its her choice.” Another female student said, “[clothing] is a form of expressing yourself.”
Based on these interviews, it seems that girls are quite passionate about this issue and are willing to work to change the rule. So why is this prohibition of leggings in our dress code? We sat down with Mr. Mahabir, Head of the High School Division, to delve deeper into the reasoning behind this rule. “Our dress code is pretty lenient. Lots of schools don’t allow jeans. I think that leggings and sweatpants and those kinds of things suggest that maybe we’re not being thoughtful… [they are] too casual for school. I don’t think leggings are bad. I just think they’re one article of clothing not suitable for school.”
Mr. Mahabir went on to say, “The burden seems to be falling heavily on girls because of leggings, but when boys wear sweatpants it’s not acceptable either.” When we pressed further on the point that girls are getting called out for leggings more than boys for sweatpants, Mr. Mahabir said, “That may be true. We have to get better about calling out boys.“
We also asked one male freshman what his opinions are on this issue, and he said,“ I think that girls should be allowed to wear leggings because it is more in our actions that we represent Grace Church School, not in our clothing.”
Although the dress code rules might not be changed altogether, completely in favor of leggings for girls, girls can still make sure that the administration and the student council are aware of our concerns, and respond to them accordingly.