Dress codes are meant to ensure that clothing does not create a distracting or uncomfortable learning environment for students. However, at CHS, the dress code is starting to add unnecessary stress and tension to students’ lives.

After watching the same dress code video year after year, students are quite aware of what the dress code entails. However, amidst the many necessary and expected rules, certain rules seem absurd, and students are immediately tempted to ignore them.

For instance, how many students find shoulders obscene? Or how many students want to have the pressure of making sure their shorts are past their fingertips?

Most students would rather risk the small chance of a punishment instead of going out of their way to find “appropriate” clothing. After all, the clothing that meets school criteria can be hard to find.

The fashion industry is promoting more skin and less clothing, while CHS is promoting the opposite. With the most popular teen clothing stores advertising merchandise in clear violation of the dress code, students have to work hard to find clothes that are actually “appropriate”.

What may upset students more is when they see other students walking down the hallway in clear violation of the dress code and not getting reprimanded. This scenario is unavoidable because it happens every time a cheerleader wears her cheer uniform skirt to school.

Cheerleading skirts are not even close to extending past students’ fingertips, yet the cheerleaders do not face the same consequences as another student wearing a skirt that is too short. These double standards cause more anger and disruption during a school day than any inappropriate outfit would.

When a school sponsored team is wearing a uniform that does not meet the dress code, it is evident that some of the rules are outdated and irrelevant and such rules should just be revoked.

While it’s up to administrators to decide exactly how they will enforce the dress code, they should maintain equal and consistent enforcement for all.

The students have to take it upon themselves to make sure that they do not abuse a more lenient dress code. Ultimately, if students take advantage of having fewer rules, the school would be forced to revert back to the strict and irritating rules in place right now.

Overall, unless the school has a way to make appropriate clothing accessible and a requirement for all, the dress code needs an update. Otherwise, the division in the school between those who follow the dress code, those who do not, and those who are seemingly exempt from it is creating a large distraction—the very thing a dress code is meant to prevent.