Some high schools require students to wear uniforms while others let students dress as they choose. St. Paul Academy and Summit School Lower School students fall on the uniform end of that spectrum, while the Middle School and Upper School policies allow more freedom in clothing choice.

Upper School students want to see more changes in the dress code, and the community will discuss and dispute them this year.

Recent revisions to language, but not expectation, were sparked by student concerns related to perceived bias in wording that targets female students.

“It makes me feel self-conscious when I come to school and I’m fully clothed but I still feel like I need to hide my body. This is the age where kids develop body issues and calling girls out at what they wear is really unhelpful,” sophomore Ella Matticks said.

To address student concerns about the dress code, the Upper School Council and administration began conversations at the end of last school year and over the summer to revise the wording.

“What we wanted to do, before we even got into discussion, was remove the wording that felt like it was targeting and shaming,” Upper School Principal Chris Hughes said. “It was just time [for the old wording] to go; it was old school wording that didn’t belong.”

The old dress code’s wording, established many years ago, had remained essentially unchanged. “It’s been adjusted and adapted a little bit over the years, but frankly I don’t think that anyone has taken a good serious look at it in I don’t know how long,” Hughes said.

Particularly concerning in the former dress code was language that targeted female clothing items deemed inappropriate: halter tops, spaghetti straps, and racerback tops among them.
The new dress code replaces these lines with “students should not wear clothes that are specifically designed to highlight and expose stomachs, backs, chests or undergarments.”
“[The dress code] was a little offensive towards female students, so I think it definitely needed to change. The new wording is a more positive way at looking at the dress code and I’m glad they changed it,” sophomore Lutalo Jones said.

Although the changes eliminated wording that targeted females, many male SPA students are still involved in the matter.

“For guys, there are not a lot of clothing restrictions. But I understand how the dress code can create a lot of problems for girls because it talks about a lot of girls’ clothing,” freshman Turab Naqvi said.

“It [the policy] still needs to be edited. They changed it in some positive ways but it still is offensive to a lot of people,” junior Hallie Sogin said.

While only the wording of the dress code has changed so far, students can expect to hear more regarding the actual expectations of the dress code within the community in upcoming USC-facilitated panel discussions.“Just like we did with the cell phones last year, I want the student council to work on this and to come back with recommendations,” Hughes said.

USC is currently at work discussing the dress code, and the larger SPA community will also be involved in these discussions within the next year. While not final, student input will certainly have a large impact on the dress code going forward.

“I think that there should be boundaries… but I still want to be able to wear what I feel comfortable in to school,” Matticks said.

The new dress code still contains a line about leggings and yoga pants, typically considered female clothing: “Yoga pants and leggings are permitted ONLY if they are covered by a shirt, skirt or dress that reaches to upper thigh.”While student input on the dress code will have a large impact, all changes will ultimately need to be approved by the administration.

Decisions on future revisions are expected to be made some time within this school year.

This article was originally published in the September 2014 Print issue of The Rubicon.  The story can be seen in its original form by clicking on the “In Print” tab or at ISSUU.com.