At Germantown Academy, when you walk down the halls, you turn your head left and right to hear students debating about the dress code. The dress code is very strict to help students be locked in the entire day, but I think it is actually worsening the students and not allowing them to be their authentic selves and not distract themselves or others through their clothing choices.
As a student, the dress code is too strict, and teachers giving detentions for the smallest details feels harsh to students.
First, the colors have to be exactly on point, or else it’s a detention. It has to be navy and not royal blue. It has to be GA red and not maroon.
Why are teachers trying to give students a hard time for a slight color variation? Students are going to need a color palette when they go back to school shopping, because if it’s royal blue, it’s a detention.
Why does the administration really want students spending so much more money than they already do on getting a good education just to buy clothes for school that they will only be wearing from November to March, when it’s hoodie season?
What if someone has only hoodies with logos on them? Now the administration team is making them spend more money buying entirely new hoodies for school, which might be of poor quality and be uncomfortable for students to wear.
If the sweatshirts that are allowed at GA without logos are uncomfortable to wear, then the students could be too distracted with the clothing article on their bodies and could miss a valuable lesson.
To prevent detentions because of dress codes from happening, I believe that we should allow hoodies to have small logos and be any color of blue or red to be allowed in school.
The last part of the dress code that is flawed are sweatpants under the kilt. GA students are not allowed to wear sweats under their kilts or else it is a detention.
The only time where sweatpants are acceptable is during labs. A student might be wearing sweatpants during a lab where hazardous chemicals are involved, walk out to the hallways to use the bathroom and get dress coded by a teacher in the process of it.
There are times where sweatpants are useful, and it is when it is cold outside and girls might want to wear more layers.
Although this is an unfixable problem, one minor adjustment is that sweat pants can be worn before school, and during Morning Meeting, as long as they are taken off before first period class.
Although the dress code has many flaws, I believe making a few slight changes to the rules can help students be their best selves while also having a strict dress code.