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Do School Dress Codes Discriminate Against Girls?

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Do School Dress Codes Discriminate Against Girls?

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"Common punishments for those violations included missing class time or facing suspension, as a result of hair, makeup, or clothing styles that were deemed inappropriate."
This quote was from an article reporting experiences from dress codes violations. I never really thought about how much the violations affected the "perpetrators." Do dress code violations do more harm then help? Dress codes are put in place to try and "reduce" the amount of distractions in a learning environment, however, it seems to create more of a distraction.

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School dress-code controversies have been trending on the web in recent months, fanning a controversy over whether schools are enforcing the rules in ways that discriminate against girls.

In one of the latest episodes, a viral video initially meant to instruct students on the dress-code policy at Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas, drew intense criticism last month for depicting only girls as rule violators. In St. Louis, Oakville High School's principal is captured on video apologizing to parents after telling female students they should not show off their bodies for fear of "distracting" male classmates. And a Roman Catholic school in New Orleans came into the internet spotlight when a 6th grader was forced to leave the classroom, in tears, for having braided hair extensions, which were against the school's hair policy.

Schools with strict dress codes often claim that such regulations prevent in-class distractions, create a workplace-like environment, reduce pressures based on socioeconomic status, and deter gang activity. However, in an age of #MeToo and easy internet access, controversy is increasingly cropping up over whether excluding students from the classroom for violating dress codes is worthwhile, and whether such rules are disproportionately enforced against girls, and especially those of color.

The website Change.org now says it's hosting more than 400 open petitions against individual school dress codes. The majority have been created by students, and many of the petitions' titles assert that their schools' dress codes are sexist or unfairly enforced.

"These rules aren't neutral: many target girls, and especially black girls, by regulating skirt length and headwraps," a report on school dress codes in the District of Columbia that was compiled by the National Women's Law Center states. "And the rules aren't applied equally, either. Students report that black girls, and especially curvier students, are disproportionately targeted."

Lost learning time

Nationwide, 53 percent of public schools enforced a strict dress code during the 2015-16 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But, data on who's being punished for dress-code violations and how the penalties are being meted out are harder to come by. The study by the NWLC takes a rare quantifiable look at the issue.

Released in April, it examines the experiences of 21 black girls who attend or attended 12 District of Columbia schools, including charter schools, and analyzes districtwide student-discipline data.

In the one-on-one interviews, all of the girls reported experiencing or witnessing dress-code enforcement in their schools. Common punishments for those violations included missing class time or facing suspension, as a result of hair, makeup, or clothing styles that were deemed inappropriate. Since the report's release, two of the schools have made changes to their dress policies.

"[Dress codes] sit at that intersection where they impact girls differently; they impact black girls differently," said Nia Evans, the NWLC's manager of campaign and digital strategies and education. "And when you add discipline to it, it's really a disaster."

The concern is that students who may already be struggling academically fall farther behind in class when they miss too much time serving suspensions, changing clothes, or waiting while administrators measure their skirt lengths. Nationwide, African-American girls are 5.5 times more likely than their white counterparts to be suspended from school, but it's not clear what proportion of those punishments stem from dress-code issues.

Adrienne Dixson, a professor of education policy, organization, and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believes dress codes can prevent self-expression among students. Additionally, girls of color, who are more likely to wear styles such as braids, hair extensions, and Afros, are more likely to be disciplined, as the Louisiana 6th grader was.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, dress codes are legal as long as they do not "treat boys and girls differently, force students to conform to sex stereotypes, or censor particular viewpoints." (This includes protection for transgender, non-binary gender, or any other students who may choose to dress in nontraditional ways.)

In some cases, the protests from students and parents are making an impact.

Victoria Schantz was a senior last year when the Women's Empowerment Club at Indian Trail High School in Kenosha, Wisc., decided to take on the district's dress code.

Schantz, who posted about the protest on the ACLU's website, readily joined in, remembering feeling objectified by her teachers after having been pulled out of class for her clothing, given temporary clothes, and sent home to change on multiple occasions. One day, after being sent home twice-once for wearing a shirt deemed inappropriate and a second time for wearing leggings and a baggy shirt-the school called her mother to tell her that Schantz would have to spend the rest of the day completing her classwork alone in the office.

After reviewing 3,000 petition signatures and discussing the issue at six board meetings and two working sessions, the board agreed with Schantz's club and created a more lenient dress code, which will be implemented this year. Changes include allowing students to wear yoga pants and leggings.

Schools' responses

Like the Kenosha district, many of the schools that have found themselves in the internet spotlight so far this year have issued apologies or scaled back their dress-code policies.

Marcus High School's principal admitted that the video, which was an alternative for the annual fashion show that informs students of appropriate attire, "absolutely missed the mark" by featuring only girls. Oakville High School's principal apologized to parents at an open house for her comments about girls distracting boys, promising that she will issue a similar apology to students during the school day; however, an official public statement had not been released as of press time.

Following a lawsuit brought against Christ the King Parish School by the Louisiana 6th grader's family, the policy prohibiting hair extensions has been rescinded.

While some schools have responded to dress-code controversies with a more lenient dress code or by switching to uniforms, others, such as Alameda High School in California and Evanston Township High School in Illinois, decided instead to reform their codes completely.

The new dress code in Evanston begins by stating that it "supports equitable educational access" and "does not reinforce stereotypes." The code outlines that students cannot wear clothes that depict hate speech, illegal items, or profanity; clothes that reveal undergarments (aside from visible straps or waistbands); and accessories that could be considered dangerous.

Essentially, students must wear a shirt, pants, dress, or skirt, and shoes, all of which do not pose a threat to another student or staff member. Everything else is fair game.

"We wanted students to know that your body is your body, and we want you to feel proud and comfortable in your own skin," said Superintendent Eric Witherspoon, who helped reform the dress code.

The new dress code was implemented this past school year and, according to Witherspoon, the school has not received any negative feedback.

"The school did not fall apart, education kept going on, and students did not become more disrespectful," Witherspoon said. "We have students of all different races, body shapes, gender expressions, and backgrounds, and the great thing is that they now are able to express themselves."

Social media posts raise equity questions about dress codes

A flurry of social media posts raise equity questions about schools' enforcement of dress codes:

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Do School Dress Codes Discriminate Against Girls?

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A spate of viral videos is sparking questions about whether school dress code policies unfairly single out girls.

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This photo brought me back to middle school and high school. In my school, girls were not allowed to wear spaghetti straps or shirts with straps less than 3 fingers wide. I couldn't understand how exposed shoulders could be such a violation of dress code policy.

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School Dress Codes Targeting Students by Race

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School Dress Codes Targeting Students by Race

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"Recently, two Black high school students in Barbers Hill Independent School District in Texas were disciplined for violating the district dress code by wearing their hair in dreadlocks (per their families’ cultural custom)." This line from this article angered me because the school determined that the way these two students chose to wear their hair was a "distraction." This is a complete violation of self-expression and disrespect to the culture of these two students.

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* Chloe Latham Sikes, M.A. * IDRA Newsletter * February 2020 *
Recently, two Black high school students in Barbers Hill Independent School District in Texas were disciplined for violating the district dress code by wearing their hair in dreadlocks (per their families' cultural custom). As in this case, while supposedly established to minimize disruption in the classroom, dress code policies and their disciplinary consequences can actually disrupt the learning opportunities and school environment for students, and can be discriminatory against students' gender, religious and cultural expression (NWLC, 2018; Sherwin, 2017), with a disproportionately harmful impact on students of color and girls.
Disparate Impacts of Dress Codes by Race and Gender

No child should have their body objectified or shamed for what they wear to school or how they stylistically express themselves. Yet, the design and associated consequences of dress code policies can have disparate effects as a result of gender and racial biases.

The consequences of dress code violations contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline that systematically targets students of color. Suspending students or sending them out from the classroom to change clothes - for any reason - can compromise students' learning and instruction (NWLC, 2018).

Black girls experience the greatest racial and gender disproportionally in being suspended or expelled from school than any other group, due in part to disciplinary dress codes (Crenshaw, 2015). One report focused on Washington, D.C., found that schools suspend Black girls at nearly 21 times the rate of White girls (NWLC, 2018).

In Texas, for example, Black girls experience the greatest gender disparity in discipline across racial groups. They are suspended at higher rates than their Black male counterparts through both out-of-school (36% compared to 30%) and in-school suspensions (25% vs. 21%) (OCR, 2018).

Initiatives to Address Harmful Dress Codes and Discipline

However, students have begun to push back against draconian dress code policies (Nittle, 2018; Malik, 2020) and promote fair dress codes that focus on students' safety and civil rights. Fair dress codes uphold respect for cultural expression, prohibit hate speech in accordance with the law, and have no disparate impact based on race or gender nor harmful exclusionary disciplinary responses.

Politicians and advocacy groups have noticed this trend. Federal lawmakers recently introduced legislation that addresses racial and gender disparities in school discipline and dress code enforcement (Speri, 2019).

Several school districts, including Austin ISD, modified their school dress code policies to prioritize the health and safety of students, rather than objectify girls' bodies or discriminate against culturally-significant forms of dress and style. The momentum is growing as legislators in 21 state are pushing for legislation that bans hair discrimination.

Recommendations

IDRA recommends the following approaches to create and track more fair, safe and respectful dress code policies.

State policymakers should restrict schools from issuing exclusionary discipline consequences for dress code violations.

State education agencies should disaggregate discipline rate reports for dress code violations by race/ethnicity and gender.

Students, families and community members can advocate that their local school districts modify their dress code policies to be fair, safe, and respectful of self-expression without exclusionary disciplinary consequences.

School districts should modify dress code policies to protect students' civil rights and personal safety without exclusionary disciplinary consequences.

At little or no cost, the IDRA EAC-South can work with school districts in the U.S. South to review their dress codes and their local student codes of conduct to ensure they are equitable and affirming. (See www.idra.org/eac-south for more information.)

Resources

Crenshaw, K.W. (2015). Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected. New York, NY: African American Policy Forum; Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.

Malik, A. (February 11, 2020). "SAISD students ask for limits on school policing, amendments to their Bill of Rights," San Antonio Express-News.

Office for Civil Rights. (2018). 2013-14 State and National Estimations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

National Women's Law Center. (2018). Dress Coded: Black Girls, Bodies, and Bias in D.C. Schools. Washington, D.C.: NWLC.

Nittle, N. (2018, Sept. 13). "Students are Waging War on Sexist and Racist School Dress Codes - And They're Winning," Vox.

Sherwin, G. (2017). 5 Things Public Schools Can and Can't Do When It Comes to Dress Codes. New York, N.Y.: ACLU.

Speri, A. (2019, December 5). "New Legislation Aims to End the 'School to Confinement' Pathway," The Intercept.

Chloe Latham Sikes, M.A., is IDRA's deputy director of policy. Comments and questions may be directed to her via e-mail at chloe.sikes@idra.org.
[©2020, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the February 2020 IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]

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Racial and Gender Disparities in Dress Code Discipline Point to Need for New Approaches in Schools - IDRA

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Chloe Latham Sikes, M.A. * IDRA Newsletter * February 2020 * Recently, two Black high school students in Barbers Hill Independent School District in Texas were disciplined for violating the district dress code by wearing their hair in dreadlocks (per their families' cultural custom).

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This line from this article really stood out to me, "“This sends a disturbing message to all students: What a girl looks like is more important than what she learns and thinks. No girl should ever have to forfeit her education because her shirt is the wrong color or she has a hole in her jeans.” Certain dress code policies that are put into place just target females and make them the subject of blame.

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While a dress code is supposed to make the school environment more conducive to learning, it frequently does the opposite. In the past year, schools all over the country made national news for the ways they enforce their dress code- asking a student to put duct tape over the holes in her jeans, suspending a student for a skirt that was too short, or sending a student to the office for not wearing a bra -all of which take the focus off learning and place it on girls' bodies.

At East Longmeadow High School, Massachusetts, six out of the nine dress code regulations targeted female students. The dress code had not been updated since the 1990s. "It was time for us to revisit some of the language," principal Gina Flanagan said.

Many school dress codes use gendered language, such as "girls must not wear spaghetti straps or show cleavage." The reasoning? These things are distracting to other students, particularly males. Girlhood expert Shauna Pomerantz of Brock University says that "dress coding" students for being distracting is a form of victim-blaming.

"It's saying the male response is your fault. Your body is causing negativity," explains Pomerantz. Sexist rules also set a precedent for men, she adds. "It is offensive to men. It suggests they don't have the ability to talk to a female student without going wild."

Marci Kutzer, a fourth-grade teacher at Bertha Ronzone Elementary in Las Vegas, Nevada, says that, while school boards couch dress codes as preparing students for the workplace and adult life, their real purpose is to prevent "distractions."

Kutzer says that sends a powerful message: "A boy's education can be compromised by your gender. Please do what you can to neutralize it." This clearly puts a burden on female students.

Another notorious dress code rule is the "finger-tip policy." Female students must wear skirts or shorts that go past their fingertips. While this seems straightforward, students and parents report that for some, it's impossible to find clothing that complies with the rule.

In Duval County, Florida, Nikki Belsham says that she's been struggling with this rule since she was in school, and now her daughter is facing the same dilemma.

Shopping for her daughter is difficult; while Belsham can find appropriate clothing at the mall, it doesn't pass the test. This is a common problem.

"Take a tall, skinny 12 year old girl-her shorts may not pass this finger length test and would be considered inappropriate for school, even though her butt is covered and the shorts are relatively long," she explains.

Belsham also says that administration won't enforce the rule with boys. "Not one person in administration would even look at or question the length of a boy's shorts."

'White Male Default'

Kutzer says that she will only "dress code" students if their clothing is clearly so tight it is uncomfortable. Her school follows "standard school attire," (SSA) so students wear uniforms. On laundry day, however, some students show up without. Other student's families can't afford to keep up with their growing children, so their uniforms are ill-fitting.

"We are told by our administrators to send non-compliance issues to the office, but I only refer kids who are clearly wearing too tight or uncomfortable clothing, and I send them to the nurse, who keeps a stash of extra clothing for this type of situation," explains Kutzer.

The high school attended by her daughter, however, uses a dress code policy rather than the SSA. Kutzer noticed that it essentially targets female and minority students-the focus being on on parts of the female anatomy, like backs, shoulders, and legs.

"Targeting styles of clothing that are mostly associated with a particular minority group is discriminatory. When styles such as 'sagging pants' are the issue, we are putting a burden predominantly on black males," says Kutzer.

She calls this the "white male default," a common trend for school dress codes. "Dressing as most white young men do seems to be what is encouraged.'

In 17-year-old Maddie Reeser's Baltimore City public school, it's the Black girls at her school who are the most frequently dress coded-a double discrimination. "My white friends rarely get sent to the office, but my Black friends do quite often," says Reeser.

Another student said she brought up this issue to a male administrator, who told her it was "because white girls don't have as much to show." The student says this comment made her feel uncomfortable, let along failing to address the inequality.

Despite the fact that Reeser's school has a uniform, she and her peers still faced the same issues that Belsham described at her Duval County school. "The rule should be based on the clothes, not how they fit, because it's different for each person," says Belsham.

Despite the rules being the same for every girl, teachers end up enforcing the rules more strictly with Black females, and in a way that is humiliating.

Many dress codes can cause black students to fall behind academically, according to a 2018 National Women's Law Center study. Looking at public schools in the District of Columbia, the report found that three in four D.C. public high school dress codes say students can be pulled out of class or school for dress code violations.

"It's outrageous that girls are losing critical class time simply for what they are wearing," said NWLC Education Fellow and report co-author, Kayla Patrick. "This sends a disturbing message to all students: What a girl looks like is more important than what she learns and thinks. No girl should ever have to forfeit her education because her shirt is the wrong color or she has a hole in her jeans."

Making All Students Feel Comfortable

East Longmeadow principal Flanagan said she's tried to target inequalities at her own school by creating a gender-neutral dress code, and by involving students in the dress code process. "Instead of saying no low cut shirts or cleavage, the dress code says all private parts must be covered at all times," she says.

Pomerantz recommends giving students lots of leeway to express themselves with fashion. If something truly crosses the line, there's a way to tell them, without enforcing victim-blaming.

"A question you can ask is 'What is it about dressing this way that's so important to you?'" Pomerantz recommends.

Many schools are looking into updating their dress code policies by making them more gender neutral, gathering student input and changing the wording-just taking the blame off females for "distracting" male students. Kutzer says the SSA at her school promotes equality fairly successfully-at least at the fourth-grade level. The districts hasn't yet introduced the SSA at the high school level.

"We want our kids to feel comfortable when they come to school," says Flanagan. "Who knows? Five or ten years from now we may have to update again to fit the changing times."

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When School Dress Codes Discriminate | NEA

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Student dress codes continue to unfairly target girls and students of color. Experts and educators weigh in on how to make them more equitable.

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How do we know this is a problem that needs to be addressed? How do we know that schools are the right venue to address this problem?

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How do we know this is a problem that needs to be addressed? How do we know that schools are the right venue to address this problem?

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We know that this is a problem that needs to be addressed because females should not be the place of blame when it comes to dress code. It is understandable for dress code policy to be put into action when students wear clothing that depict hate speech, profanity, or illegal items, but dress code policies should not target people based on gender or race. Schools are the right venue to address this problem because a lot of what students learn in school stays with them for the rest of their life. If dress code policy is reinforcing an idea that is harmful to a certain group of people, the best place to fix this issue is where it begins.

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Recommendations from the IDRA (Intercultural Development Research Association)

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Recommendations from the IDRA (Intercultural Development Research Association)

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- State policymakers should eliminate exclusionary discipline consequences for dress code violations
-Community members should advocate for dress code policies to be fair and respectful to self-expression
-School districts should modify dress code policies so protect students' civil rights and personal safety

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* Chloe Latham Sikes, M.A. * IDRA Newsletter * February 2020 *
Recently, two Black high school students in Barbers Hill Independent School District in Texas were disciplined for violating the district dress code by wearing their hair in dreadlocks (per their families' cultural custom). As in this case, while supposedly established to minimize disruption in the classroom, dress code policies and their disciplinary consequences can actually disrupt the learning opportunities and school environment for students, and can be discriminatory against students' gender, religious and cultural expression (NWLC, 2018; Sherwin, 2017), with a disproportionately harmful impact on students of color and girls.
Disparate Impacts of Dress Codes by Race and Gender

No child should have their body objectified or shamed for what they wear to school or how they stylistically express themselves. Yet, the design and associated consequences of dress code policies can have disparate effects as a result of gender and racial biases.

The consequences of dress code violations contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline that systematically targets students of color. Suspending students or sending them out from the classroom to change clothes - for any reason - can compromise students' learning and instruction (NWLC, 2018).

Black girls experience the greatest racial and gender disproportionally in being suspended or expelled from school than any other group, due in part to disciplinary dress codes (Crenshaw, 2015). One report focused on Washington, D.C., found that schools suspend Black girls at nearly 21 times the rate of White girls (NWLC, 2018).

In Texas, for example, Black girls experience the greatest gender disparity in discipline across racial groups. They are suspended at higher rates than their Black male counterparts through both out-of-school (36% compared to 30%) and in-school suspensions (25% vs. 21%) (OCR, 2018).

Initiatives to Address Harmful Dress Codes and Discipline

However, students have begun to push back against draconian dress code policies (Nittle, 2018; Malik, 2020) and promote fair dress codes that focus on students' safety and civil rights. Fair dress codes uphold respect for cultural expression, prohibit hate speech in accordance with the law, and have no disparate impact based on race or gender nor harmful exclusionary disciplinary responses.

Politicians and advocacy groups have noticed this trend. Federal lawmakers recently introduced legislation that addresses racial and gender disparities in school discipline and dress code enforcement (Speri, 2019).

Several school districts, including Austin ISD, modified their school dress code policies to prioritize the health and safety of students, rather than objectify girls' bodies or discriminate against culturally-significant forms of dress and style. The momentum is growing as legislators in 21 state are pushing for legislation that bans hair discrimination.

Recommendations

IDRA recommends the following approaches to create and track more fair, safe and respectful dress code policies.

State policymakers should restrict schools from issuing exclusionary discipline consequences for dress code violations.

State education agencies should disaggregate discipline rate reports for dress code violations by race/ethnicity and gender.

Students, families and community members can advocate that their local school districts modify their dress code policies to be fair, safe, and respectful of self-expression without exclusionary disciplinary consequences.

School districts should modify dress code policies to protect students' civil rights and personal safety without exclusionary disciplinary consequences.

At little or no cost, the IDRA EAC-South can work with school districts in the U.S. South to review their dress codes and their local student codes of conduct to ensure they are equitable and affirming. (See www.idra.org/eac-south for more information.)

Resources

Crenshaw, K.W. (2015). Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected. New York, NY: African American Policy Forum; Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.

Malik, A. (February 11, 2020). "SAISD students ask for limits on school policing, amendments to their Bill of Rights," San Antonio Express-News.

Office for Civil Rights. (2018). 2013-14 State and National Estimations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

National Women's Law Center. (2018). Dress Coded: Black Girls, Bodies, and Bias in D.C. Schools. Washington, D.C.: NWLC.

Nittle, N. (2018, Sept. 13). "Students are Waging War on Sexist and Racist School Dress Codes - And They're Winning," Vox.

Sherwin, G. (2017). 5 Things Public Schools Can and Can't Do When It Comes to Dress Codes. New York, N.Y.: ACLU.

Speri, A. (2019, December 5). "New Legislation Aims to End the 'School to Confinement' Pathway," The Intercept.

Chloe Latham Sikes, M.A., is IDRA's deputy director of policy. Comments and questions may be directed to her via e-mail at chloe.sikes@idra.org.
[©2020, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the February 2020 IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]

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Racial and Gender Disparities in Dress Code Discipline Point to Need for New Approaches in Schools - IDRA

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Chloe Latham Sikes, M.A. * IDRA Newsletter * February 2020 * Recently, two Black high school students in Barbers Hill Independent School District in Texas were disciplined for violating the district dress code by wearing their hair in dreadlocks (per their families' cultural custom).