OPOSING VIEWPOINTS TOPIC: High school dress code It takes more than banning a T-shirt to help students learn
In an effort to promote a more positive and respectful atmosphere at Warren County High School, principal James Bennett recently strengthened that school’s dress code to ban any clothing or accessories that shall be distracting in an education setting. A student’s dress, he says, should never distract from school activities or prove a hazard to a student’s safety or the safety of others.
Sadly, such measures as the banning of shirts with phrases or pictures on them and body jewelry like tongue, nose and eyebrow rings will do little to make the high school more conducive to learning or a safer educational setting.
Students who want to learn will not be distracted from doing so if the student sitting next to them is wearing a Hard Rock Cafe or 50 Cent shirt or an eyebrow or tongue ring. Similarly, students who do not want to learn will not be induced to do so by a lack of such shirts or jewelry to “distract” them.
As for making the school a safer place, the lack of Rebel flag or Malcolm X shirts, which in the past have been said to cause disagreements among some students, will not stop such disagreements. Animosity between some students will always exist and will always make itself known. If anything, the school should let the students exercise their rights to free expression while at the same time teaching tolerance to the ideas of others, something they will need throughout their lives and which is already in short supply among many adults.
Another problem with the new dress code is its enforcement, which falls to teachers. In these days of increasing academic accountability, teachers should not have to waste valuable classroom time visually inspecting their students for dress code violations several times a day. Teachers are paid to teach, not police and discipline.