By Madi Walschmidt and Ben Budke
“What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is an instant language.” —Miuccia Prada. Students, today dress to fit the guidelines of a student dress code. Students and staff all are expected to dress appropriately with staff needing to be present themselves professionally. Students sometimes struggle to follow certain rules but want to express who they are based on their fashion. Other students dress to make it through the day comfortably.
Students today are different in their views of fashion. A few students believe in dressing for comfort.
“Long sleeve shirt sweatshirt and leggings with vans, during summer shorts t-shirt and vans,” said Kayla Banks.
Others want to dress in a fashion that’s seen as “in,” such as the crop tops and baggy jeans or the “Nike” white shoes that most girls are wearing.
Most often guys at BHS can be seen wearing the same thing student Liam MacKenzie wears day-to-day.
“I wear a sweatshirt, sweatpants or khakis almost every day with my Adidas shoes,” MacKenzie said.
Students are all set to the same standard of how they dress to have an appropriate and comfortable school setting. Although there are rules set in place, BHS Dean Steven Lucas said that students still get in trouble for not following certain guidelines.
“48 in total, 10 girls, 38 boys with hats and hoods which are almost always the issue,” Lucas said.
The hat and hood wearing issues are truly one of the only repeated dress code violations present at BHS. According to the School District Board of Education Policy 7:160, it states regarding hats and hoods: “All hats, caps, bandanas, and other headwear are to be removed immediately upon entering the building and must remain off until the student is out of the building. The hat or cap must be placed in the student’s locker and must remain there until the student leaves the building.”
The Batavia staff is not given a dress code to follow on daily but Tom Shields claimed, regarding BHS staff, “It is an unspoken rule to just dress appropriately for the school day.”
Students are given punishment if they can’t follow the certain rules that are set in place.
“The only time a student will talk to their counselor about the dress code is usually when they are upset about the consequences they are receiving,” said counselor Corey Bernard. “During these times, we try to help students process their thoughts/feelings. We’ll talk through the decisions they made, how they handled the situation and what they can do to help solve the problem.”
Students may need help processing how they feel and if they are upset about not being able to dress how they want to or if they are upset about the consequences. Many students do not have a problem following the dress code but for the few that do, it is necessary to correct and help fix what went wrong.
“Dress code violations would be anything,” Lucas said, “that is a major disruption to the learning environment and/or that the clothing displayed or depicted obscenities.”