The Day Creek Intermediate school dress code states, “The Etiwanda School District prohibits any manner of dress or appearance that is likely to cause a substantial disruption of, or a material interference with, the educational process, student safety, or campus order.”

This quote is an explanation that clothing is considered to be a distraction is not allowed at Day Creek Intermediate. Most students know that if you are dress coded, you are expected to call home and ask for different clothes or change into PE clothes which can sometimes be embarrassing to some students. At Day Creek Intermediate School, students call this, “The walk of shame.” 

Students get dress coded if what they are wearing is a distraction to others. For a simple article of clothing, students are expected to take time out of their learning to change clothes. Isn’t this a distraction itself?  

Although some rules are understandable, there should be some exceptions for tall girls. It’s hard enough to shop for clothes that follow the school dress code when you are a normal height. So when it comes to tall girls, it is nearly impossible to find shorts that are the length of your fingertips or a shirt that won’t come up when you raise both arms. “No short shorts, (shorts must be within the length of fingers when arms are placed at the side of the body),” the Day Creek dress code states.  This can seem quite unreasonable to some girls.

“Some of us have long arms and long legs so the shorts have to be up to our fingertips and since our arms are so long that shorts might as well be pants I think (the dress code) is for some girls, but it needs to be fair for everyone.  There should be (exceptions) for different types of people. Since short girls have shorter arms and legs, they have a better advantage with dress code.” said Olivia Raymond.

Short girls or even girls who are considered to be “a normal height” can get away with a lot more when it comes to clothing.  Often times, short girls can be seen wearing extremely short shorts and they won’t get dress coded. But if a tall girl wears shorts slightly above her fingertips, she is violating dress code.

  “I think as a staff if we could be more consistent all the time then it would help with the dress code policy. I think inconsistency is what makes it (dress code) hard. I think at this age, no matter what size girl you are, anytime you are getting dress coded it makes you body-conscious. (When) boys are dress coded I think that anytime you are dress coded you think (more) about the body image.” said Ms. Kelley, our vice principal,

It isn’t just tall girls that are affected in a negative way when dress coded however.  Girls of all heights tend to seem less positive throughout the day when dress coded. This should also be a concern when faculty are contemplating the dress code.  Since being a distraction seems to be a major concern with clothing, it might be in the staff’s best interest to consider the fact that girls will be distracted simply by the frustration of being dress coded.