Dress code change causes stir at Glenwood High - The State Journal-Register

Jason Nevel Staff Writer @jasonnevelSJR

CHATHAM – When Glenwood High School students return to school Wednesday, they will be required to adhere to a new dress code.

One of the changes isn’t sitting well with some.

A petition created by a Glenwood High School Senior Claire Farnsworth to revise the school’s new dress code has garnered more than 1,700 signatures since it was posted online Monday.

Farnsworth said she disagrees with a new rule that says, “If wearing leggings or yoga pants, tops must cover the entire buttocks.”

In her petition, created at change.org, Farnsworth wrote, “By censoring the bodies of young girls for the comfort of others in a place that is supposed to be safe like school, we teach them that their body is a problem.”

Farnsworth added she feels the new dress policy “perpetuates the victim shame cycle.”

School officials disagree. They also say other revisions to the dress code allow students to be more expressive in what they wear compared to the old policy.

Assistant Principal Dale Wiedeman explained on Monday how the revised dress code came to be.

Wiedeman said a committee was formed at the end of last school year to review the current school handbook.

The high school invited teachers, community members and students to be on the committee, which met around a half-dozen times to discuss changes.

The committee was comprised of 11 people, including 10 women, one of which was Farnsworth, Wiedeman said.

The revision regarding yoga pants and leggings was suggested by the teachers, who indicated they noticed more often the yoga pants and leggings students wore were practically see-through, he said.

The suggestion was then bounced off the community members, who agreed a change was a good idea, Wiedeman said, adding that some school districts have gone as far as banning yoga pants and leggings outright.

“It was a teacher concern backed by the community,” he said. “All I did was act as a moderator.”

Before enacting the change, Wiedeman said, school officials reviewed dress code policies in other districts. They found the language was often vague and decided to make Glenwood’s policy clear-cut by including the word "buttocks."

He added the change about legging and yoga pants wasn’t the only revision.

At the urging of a community member, Wiedeman said, the committee removed a longstanding policy about female students not being allowed to wear shirts that expose their shoulders.

The rules also ban boys from wearing saggy pants that hang below their buttocks, he added.

“We are just asking people to be professional,” Wiedeman said.

Farnsworth, in a phone interview Tuesday, said she plans to voice her concerns at a school board meeting later this month.

One of the reasons she created the petition was because she said she didn’t feel many students were aware of the changes and would have to scramble to buy new clothes. School officials say parents were notified in April.

Farnsworth said the fact so many people signed her petition shows the policy should be reconsidered.

“Girls are going to be called out of class, written up or have time taken out of their education for something that isn’t their fault,” she said. “It perpetuates the shaming cycle, it’s the victim’s fault and not the perpetrator’s fault.”

— Contact Jason Nevel: 788-1521, jason.nevel@sj-r.com, http://twitter.com/JasonNevelSJR.

Glenwood High School dress code

1. Appropriate, safe footwear must be worn at all times.

2. Students must wear shirts that have a strap that goes over the shoulder. Tops that have plunging necklines, expose the waist, sides or are seethrough are not allowed.

3. If wearing leggings or yoga pants, tops must cover the entire buttocks.

4. Shorts, skirts and pants must cover the entire buttocks.

5. Hats or head coverings may only be worn inside the building for religious or medical reasons.

6. No clothing will be allowed that defames, degrades or is offensive to a gender, gender identity, race, color, religious creed, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, a physical or mental impairment or culture.

7. No clothing should display any suggestive or objectionable material. Clothing must not advocate unhealthy behavior, dangerous practice, or create a safety problem (includes no graphics/text containing sexual connotations, controlled substances or violence).

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