Community Corner

Students, Administrators Discuss Dress Code Proposal [With Video]

A proposal to ban students from wearing clothes that reveal undergarments or "private body areas" passed the Board of Education's Policy Committee Tuesday night and heads to the full Board of Ed. next for approval.

 

In the day since the news broke about the Meriden school board's on revealing clothing in schools, Maloney High School Principal Ann Hushin said Wednesday afternoon she has gotten only one call from parents on the issue.

"(They) thanked me for this," Hushin said, somewhat surprised, as she said she was half-expecting angry calls on the issue. "The parent said...I think that's the proper thing to do because they need to be properly dressed when they get to school."

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Hushin and her counterpart principals at Platt High School and the city's middle schools were the impetus behind amending the district's banning form-fitting clothing that reveals undergarments and "private body areas." The Board of Education as a whole will need to vote on the measure, and will likely address it at its March 20th meeting.

It's a measure that includes tight-fitting tops, but is primarily being brought about to address a trend in the last few years of girls wearing leggings, tights and the hybrid "jeggings" as pants.

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When worn with a skirt or a long shirt, leggings and tights are appropriate, Hushin said. But according to administrators as well as other students, some girls wear them so tight and with short shirts, that the contours of their genitalia are visible – and that, Hushin says, is inappropriate in an educational setting. 

"It's the same thing when the boys are wearing their pants low," Hushin said. According to the current dress code in place, pants have to be worn close to the waist, or fit well enough to avoid exposing underwear. "There's a place for everything in life, and those pants don't belong in school. You don't go in front of a judge with pants hanging down, to church with pants hanging down."

Students interviewed after school Wednesday were mostly opposed to the ban – though most had heard that all jeggings or skinny jeans were being banned for all students across the board, and not that they were being deemed inappropriate in only certain instances.

Maloney Sophomore Milissa Gutierrez thought that banning tight-fitting pants outright would be too costly for students, since "a lot of kids that's all they wear, and they don't really have money to buy more clothes..."

Gutierrez did say that she would understand if leggings that were see-through worn as pants were disallowed, and has seen girls in her school wearing those as well as opaque leggings with short tops – both of which she did personally find inappropriate for school.

Rebekah Collins and Amanda Chatfield, both Maloney sophomores as well, said only a handful of students wore the kind of super-tight, revealing clothing, and that the issue lay with the beholder.

"They don't bother me, they shouldn't bother anyone," Collins said.

"Some people get distracted if they see your butt hanging out of your pants, but it's also your choice to look at it, it's not in your face all the time," Chatfield said, adding that she thought the role of dress gatekeeper should be parents, not teachers. "(If you're just wearing tights) I think your mother should tell you to put on some pants." 

Maloney sophomore Spenser Mahadocon's English teacher had the class discuss the issue Wednesday.

"In my class we were talking about how we can see the outlines of bras and some underwear because of such tight clothing, but I think most of us in general are mature enough to deal with that," Mahadocon said.


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