Butts. Bellies. Bras. Briefs. Four reasons to be dress coded by administration. 

“I’m under direct expectation from the school board to enforce the dress code,” principal Tim Hamblin said.

Yet many students are confused about how these rules will be implemented. 

“First, as I tried to stress in those class meetings, I want any interaction to be one that keeps the dignity and respect of the kid at the forefront,” Hamblin said.

In the past teachers were able to dress code students, but Hamblin decided to take a different approach. 

“I have sent a message to staff that I do not want them to at any point embarrass a kid,” he said. “I would prefer if they can find a private moment.” 

Junior Caidyn Allen feels as though staff has done the opposite at times.

“Personally I feel like I never broke dress code, but this year apparently I did,” she said. “I was wearing jeans and my teacher told me that my jeans were very distracting because the holes were too big.”

Junior Makiya Clopton was told by staff to put on a jacket. 

“I was wearing a top and it was a tank top kind of, but it was like two-finger length,” she said.

Two-finger length has been the standard of a shirt’s strap width, even for elementary students. 

Everyone’s definition of distracting is different, so it’s difficult to pinpoint what can be considered too much.

 “A dress code gets really, really difficult when you start to include words like decent or discretion – they are very subjective,” Hamblin said. 

Some students aren’t worried about the dress code. 

“It’s strict but not as strict as it could be,” freshman Taylor Truesdale said 

The dress code rules are mostly regarding clothes girls wear, such as no crop tops, tights and too short skirts and shorts. The only rule that is really about boys is sagging pants.

“I think it sucks,” junior Aaron Lazo said about the emphasis on girls clothing choices. “ The rules haven’t changed in a long time for everyone. I mean, dress codes been around from the 1900s, and they haven’t changed it since.”

Sophomore Boston Dunn added: “I kind of feel not that great because we have to follow the rules and I just don’t want anybody to get in trouble about the dress code,” he said. “It’s just clothes.”