VOICES

October 2015 | Prowler

Dress Code Should Barely be an Issue

Schools Need To Reexamine Their Focus On Female Dress
Just As They did On Male Appearance More Than A Decade Ago
by
staff reporter
Delilah Rivera

Shoulders, legs and the stomach

are not sexual organs. But girls in
Texas, where the states education
agency has given each school district
the authority to create their own
dress code, may think different.
Based on a school boards view of
what might be a a distraction to the
educational environment, teen girls
in Texas are encouraged to hide their
skin so that boys might not take a
peek at a bare shoulder, but instead
focus their eyes on the newest work
sitting in front of them.
Texas schools unnecessary take
on young womens dress needs to
end. Just as Texas school boards
from more than a decade ago started
shifting their eyes from how boys
with longer hair and earrings looked
to how young men were educated,
school boards today must shift their
eyes from the small patches of female
skin to the work of young women
broadening their futures.
Treating individual body parts
as if they are a threat to a learning
environment only sexualizes young
women and discriminates against
girls who have a different body
physiques. Girls with curvier or
bigger physiques not only suffer
from the heat of the early August and
September days where temperatures
exceed 90 degrees, but they are also
more likely to get called out for what
they wear, such as shorts that do not

fall exactly at fingertip point on their

thighs. These ladies are not alone in
the hallways. Their petite and lanky
friends are never covered enough in
Texas schools, as clothing designers
can not or do not meet the demands
of their taller frame.
The intense look on how females
dress leaves girls in a situation where
they cant seem to win when they
walk into the school doors while
following social norms. Take, for
example, a simple article of clothing,
the bra. Not wearing a bra, no matter
what cup size, brings public shame as
early as the late years of elementary
school, but, on the reverse side, the
visibility of a bra, as little as a strap,
is considered obscene. In school,
when a girl gets dress coded for her
bra straps, its usually because they
end up coming out from under the
sleeve, or they fall down because
they become loose. Getting in
trouble for this shames young girls
for something that is an accident, for
something they are trying to do right
and for something that is a part of
their normal everyday attire.
When girls get in trouble for
things as such as a bra strap, or a
little skin showing, it is said that the
clothing is considered a distraction
to the learning environment.
We students understand that a
disruption to education is one of the
few ways courts allow school districts
to partially infringe on students first
amendment rights in terms of dress
codes, but the adults on campus
who use this phrase need to listen
to themselves. The saying of a girls

TO THE

EDITOR

Letters

PHONE ZONES
The phone zones are lame. We
cant listen to music, and they think
that we are going to record every
single fight or every single thing.
I mean, the passing periods are
for going to class.
What if a class is moved? And, we
cant know where it is because we
cant use our phones.
Its just unreasonable, and I think
that we should change that.

Seniors Alejandra Tejada and Tianna Glover

Shoulders,
legs and the
stomach are not
sexual organs,
but girls in
Texas, where the
states education
agency has
given each
school district
the authority to
create their own
dress code may
think different.
attire can be a distraction from the
learning environment is misogynist,
and it gives the impression that a
young boys education and impulses
are more important than a girls.
The notion that boys will be boys
becomes the norm, and gives young
males in high school more reason to
view girls as sexual objects that are
supposed to conform to a standard
that shouldnt cause a distraction
to them. Every childs education

is important, but when a girl gets

pulled out of class for taking the
attention away from a male student,
its prioritizing his education ahead
of hers.
Ruthann Robson, a longtime
professor at the City University
School of New York School of
Law, says that this perspective
only implies that boys cant control
themselves, and its also giving them
permission for being essentially

COMMUNICATION

DISORGANIZATION

As far as administration goes,

and informing students on events,
its really lacking.
Nobody knows what was going
on, especially this morning [editor
note: Sept. 30 the campus was
evacuated three times because of
an electrical outage.]
Events get rescheduled and
planning isnt always done
correctly. So, theres always
congestion in the hallways and
theres no process that everyone is
aware of.

I think that the school is very

disorganized. Nothing ever gets
done in time and everything is
always messed up. Today (Sept. 30)
for example, we were out there for
over an hour. They should have just
called everything off and shut the
school down. We were out there,
we missed most of first period,
and then they had to rearrange
the entire schedule and make it
later because they had to have
people for breakfast. Its just very
disorganized and its been like that
for as long as Ive been here.

Junior Cade Garrett

Junior Simone Cunningham

aggressive to females. Because of this,

girls are more vulnerable to being
sexually objectified or harassed at
school, and, in the end, it promotes a
Rape Culture by telling females they
must cover up to protect themselves
from harassment.
Aside from harassment and
putting males needs before girls, the
unnecessary look at girls dress can
also have mental consequences. In a
study by the APA, over sexualization
and objection can lead to negative
consequences such as anxiety, shame
and depression. A study completed
by the University of Nebraska proved
that objectification can even cause
grades to drop. The anxiety of being
objectified falls into the phenomenon
known as the stereotype threat,
causing performance on educational
tasks to drop.
So when a girl gets told to cover up
in order to preserve the educational
environment, it affects her. It skews
her understanding of how she fits
into social norms. It forces her to
adapt to a new image of herself
when trying to find appropriate
clothing for her body form. It leaves
her with the image that she is less
than her male counterparts. Texas
schools, including RRISD secondary
schools, should not be putting female
students in these uncomfortable
positions for the sake of upholding a
conservative view of dress. Instead,
just like they did with males in
previous decades, the schools should
look beyond attire and put attention
on the real concern, a free, fair
education for all.

CHEERS & JEERS

Voices of the Student Body

FOOTBALL SEASON
I like our pep. At football
games the blue crew gets
really intense. I like how we
ride behind our football
team. Its really fun during
our football season.
-Destinee Silva (11)

A LOT TO OFFER
I like how Stony Point
has a lot of different
organizations so that
everyone can find
something that theyre
interested in and can
express themselves.
-Rameen Razzaq (12)

CROWDED LUNCHES
I want to have more
space to eat because its
usually crowded. Some
people are actually
sitting on the garden
part of the walls outside.
We could open the back
gates so that people
could eat around the
parking lot.
-Wesly Horn-Torres (09)
MALL AND PHONES
I dont like that we
cant hang out in the
mall anymore. And the
phone zones, they are not
appropriate.
-Tianna Glover (12)