Check out our Storify about dress code at the high school: https://storify.com/SagamoreBHS/dress-code-at-the-high-school 

In the blistering heat and accompanying humidity that characterizes a Bostonian June, everyone broke out shorts and tank tops. It was the exact same as it had been every year, except that suddenly it was 7th grade and puberty had hit us.

At lunch, one of my friends was sent home for wearing shorts that were shorter than her arm’s length. They were no shorter than those of the girl sitting next to her, but she’d attained a more mature body earlier on than her table mate.

She was 13 years old, and when she woke up that morning she didn’t put on the shorts because she was thinking about distracting boys and flaunting her body. It was just hot out.

This is a clear example of body shaming. A child was told that her body was “too much” for other people to handle, so she had to cover it up. What confuses me more about most “dress-coding” situations is that it’s teachers who are making decisions for students.

It is an insult to girls, who are being told that the education of boys is entirely dependent on their garb, and it is an insult to boys whose ability to “control themselves” is apparently so weak that a girl has to cover up for them.

An argument was made in the last edition of the Sagamore that a high school is a professional zone, and thus professional attire should be striven for. This argument would only be valid if it were made on a gender-blind basis, which for the most part, it isn’t. It targets the female population in an attempt to promote modesty.

If school is supposed to be the place that prepares you for the real world, I don’t think that restricting what people wear is an answer to that. In the “real world” (this ever ambiguous phrase for life after high school) it is entirely true that many people will judge you for what you wear.

But this is the same fact that rings true for almost all characterizing aspects of a person. People will judge you for your opinions, what you look like and what you believe in.

When I think of the two and a half years I’ve spent at the high school, I look at them with a fond kind of comfort. I feel comfortable in the walls of the school, comfortable that my teachers support my endeavors and that I’m not judged for being who I am.

School isn’t about forcing people to conform to societal standards. The education system should be about growth and creating a safe environment where kids feel comfortable to figure out who they are, what they like and what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

Fashion for many is a mode of self-expression and empowerment. To undermine that is to undermine the freedoms we have to make our own decisions.

As a girl, I have the right to my own body. I have the right to put whatever I want on my body and not feel guilty for it because of someone else’s definition of what is proper for me to wear.

No, it is not my responsibility to make life “easier” for boys. No, I do not dress for other people. But yes, it is my decision and only mine to decide what my clothing says about me. Not a dress code.

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