by Renee Craig

Staff Writer

A couple months ago when it was still freezing cold and all of us could only dream of summer I decided to wear a hat to school. It wasn’t a baseball hat or anything, it was more of a beanie and it didn’t even cover my whole head. Oddly enough though, when I was walking in the hallways a teacher asked me to take it off. Meanwhile, later on in the school day, I  saw a girl wearing a skirt that could have passed for a belt and a shirt which was see through in the back. This seems a little strange to me. We both broke the dress code. But only one of us was reprimanded.

I’m not saying that administration should start policing people for how decent their clothing is. I believe that people should be able to wear what they want because personal expression is extremely important. I love fashion and clothes and I think how I dress says a lot about me, and everyone should be able to express themselves through clothing.

My problem is not with the fashion choices of some of the girls in this school. My problem is that I can’t wear a hat in school, but I could wear heels and a skin tight dress. Enforce it all or don’t enforce anything.

We were taught by our teachers in elementary and middle school, that we could not wear hats because it was disrespectful. No offense but that rule is archaic and outdated. In our modern culture wearing a hat isn’t a sign of disrespect. Men no longer tip their hats for ladies and I am fine with that. I am all for our high school teaching us to be polite citizens but please keep the etiquette modern. Another reason that hats are banned may be that teachers think students will hide things in them or hide behind them during class. Students can hide plenty of things in their back packs and we are allowed to have those, and all teachers should feel free to call on anyone hiding behind their hat.

I feel that it is unfair to enforce outdated rules while ignoring current ones. I ask the teachers and administrators of this school to take a look at the dress code and look at it realistically. Our school has many rules but in this case only enforces some of them. Do they want us to go into society thinking that only some rules need to be followed?  Our school should be a place of consistency in a world that lacks it.