The Dress Code: Conduct versus reality

Last year in early June while school was still in session, I happened to walk by a campus supervisor only to be yelled at through a megaphone "Girl! Are you gonna put some clothes on?!? Are you gonna put some clothes on!?! Come here!"

I couldn't believe it. I had just been rudely yelled at by a campus supervisor and promptly sent to the Student Supervision Office for the top I was wearing. Sure it was a strapless top, but it wasn't low-cut or loose, and I had seen at least 10 other girls just the day before wear similar tops and pass by campus supervisors completely unhindered.

Naturally I had assumed that since the other girls hadn't gotten in trouble I, too, would be fine. Yet I ended up having to call my mother, change my top and get a tardy to my first period class.

One of high school's dirty little secrets? The dress code isn't set in stone. Rather it's become arbitrary as the judgment of which clothes violate the dress code lies in the hands of campus supervisors. They decide which shorts are too short and which tops are too low.

The rules banning alcohol, drugs, and gang-related icons on clothing may be set in stone and held with the same rigid standard for each student. But when it comes to defining exactly what clothes are considered "sexually suggestive," the campus supervisors are the ones who decide.

Further, dress codes vary slightly from school to school. At Valley Charter High School, ripped jeans are banned under their dress code while Central Catholic High School requires all the guys to be clean-shaven.

Excessively short shorts, low cut tops, spaghetti straps, tube tops, halter tops, and miniskirts are the main dress code violations for girls. Guys are more known for their sagging pants showcasing their boxers and gang colors.

Most of the time dress code violations are committed by girls because they want to dress cute but often cross the line and wear something inappropriate.

But what exactly qualifies a pair of shorts as "short-shorts?"

Jenny Solis, an assistant principal and head of student supervision at Modesto High School believes that "every girl knows what's considered inappropriate clothing and which shorts are too short for school."

In order to test whether shorts are within regulation length, schools used to promote the "finger test." Here's how it works. When standing straight with your hands down at your sides, if your fingers are longer than your shorts, then your shorts are too short.

Most schools no longer use the finger test as it was deemed unfair since some girls have longer legs than other girls. Now, campus supervisors make the call.

At Valley Charter High School, anyone caught wearing a spaghetti strap tank top is given a T-shirt to wear over it. However, at most high schools, Solis said officials "just can't regulate them because there's too many people, not enough extra shirts for them to change into, and sometimes the parents aren't home, so we usually just give them a warning."

"As long as they aren't overly risqué, like sleepwear, we aren't that strict about spaghetti straps," she said.

Excessive makeup and tattoos? As long as they're not gang-related, no specific rules forbid them.

If short-shorts and low cut tops are against the dress code because they're provocative and thus distracting in the classroom, then why are excessive makeup, high heels, and spaghetti straps perfectly acceptable? The simple answer is that high schools focus the majority of their attention on offenses dealing with gang-related clothing.

More than two articles of red or blue clothing (or just one plain shirt of either color) are strictly prohibited. But some schools are taking it a few steps further. At Pitman High in Turlock, officials are cracking down on green clothing. It, too, has become associated with gangs. Other schools even restrict plain orange clothing as they claim orange can be too easily confused with red.

"During the beginning and end of the year we get the most dress code violations due to the warm weather," Solis said. "I'd say we get about 10-15 kids up in the student supervision office each day, and that's only the kids we catch.

"There are a lot more who we can't see."

Rebecca Mears is a junior at Modesto High School and a member of The Bee's Teens in the Newsroom journalism program.

This story was originally published October 28, 2009 at 3:02 PM with the headline "The Dress Code: Conduct versus reality."