Grace Bender and Layla Welsch, Staff Writers

With the unusually warm weather, many students have been coming to school in outfits that reflect the unseasonal temperatures. However, an announcement was made over the loudspeaker on Feb. 24 requesting that even though it is warmer out, students still need to be “dressing appropriately.”

The topic of dress codes is a controversial and heated debate across the country, with both supporters and opponents expressing concerns over how teenage girls are perceived.

Dress codes is defined as being created in schools as a preliminary code to protect students from a disruption in the learning environment or “violate the rights of others,” according to FindLaw.

On the other hand, many see dress codes as a negative influence on society. According to Suzannah Weiss, who reported an Australian school assembly about covering up to show self-respect on Aug. 23, “While schools might claim that their dress codes are intended to avoid the sexualization of girls, they often actually serve the opposite purpose: to objectify them by putting focus on their looks and painting their bodies as a distraction.”

Penn-Trafford’s dress code was created to keep students safe at all levels, both physically and emotionally, which called for some restrictions of extremely revealing clothing.

“It’s important to have regulations or else crazy things could happen. People would wear things such as inappropriate messages on t-shirts, which could impede on students’ education and disrupt the learning environment,” said high school principal Tony Aquilio.

The dress code regulates skirt/dress lengths, hats, hoods, sunglasses and revealing shirts.

“The main difference between the boys’ violations and girls’ violations is that boys tend to add things, whereas girls tend to take things off,” stated Amy Kelly, Penn-Trafford high school administrator.

“Admittedly there are more female incidents [of violations of the dress code],” said high school principal Tony Aquilio “due to the style of girl’s clothing right now.”

He stated, “[The clothes] are just different than what boys wear. Boys do not wear revealing shirts, because that’s not in style currently, but even if they did they would still be held under the same rule.”

Some female students at P-T said they have felt humiliated when they were forced to change something about their outfit because they violated the dress code.

Sophomore Angel Morante said she has experienced the disciplinary action of the dress code firsthand.

“With my problems, a lot of mine have resulted from me dressing up and trying to look nice for a day, just to boost my confidence for a bit,” Morante said, “and I was called out for having a skirt that was ‘a little bit too short’ and I was told actually by a teacher to ‘pull it down’ or else I would have to change entirely.”

“It was very hurtful because I was just trying to feel good about myself for once, to make myself feel better, and I felt singled out,” she added.

“I definitely think that the dress code is tailored to limit what girls wear a bit more than what boys wear,” Morante stated. “I’ve seen on multiple occasions boys coming in muscle shirts that are cut completely up the sides and you can see entirely through it, but they usually aren’t called out on it.”

Senior Kari Danser said she believes the dress code is “ridiculous” because of the “restriction of individual creativity.”

Sophomore Collin Brant said he believes that the notion that the dress is to limit boys’ distraction is “stupid” and believes students should be able to wear what they want in order to be comfortable and true to themselves.

He said he thinks that the code should be changed and believes it will be changed to treat female students more equally in the warmer months towards the end of school.

“In college you’re allowed to wear what you want,” Brant said, “and they’re trying to make [high school] more of a college environment, so I believe there should not be a dress code.”

Morante, however, has a different perspective on how the dress code should be handled.

“I personally don’t feel the dress code is unnecessary, but I don’t think it needs to be as restricting,” she said. “I don’t think that it’s right for girls should be coming to school in bikini tops, but I don’t think that a tank top is going to cause any issues.”

Student opinions and the trending ideas do occasionally influence the revisions of the code as well.

“A goal that we have is to definitely revise the dress code to be more gender-neutral,” Aquilio said. “That is something that is going to be looked into and worked on this summer hopefully.”

Due to the rule prohibiting bra straps from showing and shorts that must fall below fingertips, many students are have to wear long sleeved shirts and pants for the entire school year.

“It’s impossible to find shorts that come down to my fingertips,” sophomore Emma Armstrong said. “And because I have long legs and long arms I have to wear pants all year, even when it is 90 degrees outside.”

And both Aquilio and Kelly can understand that it is arduous to find school-appropriate clothes because of the current style.

“It is difficult to find appropriate clothes like shorts because there are not a lot of choices. Longer shorts are not as popular in the modern times,” Kelly said.

“The current fashion marketing does not help,” added Aquilio.

However, as the times change and along with it the styles of clothing that are popular, the dress code is updated and revised to fit the culture and time.

“Students are now allowed to wear yoga pants,” said Kelly, “which used to be a violation of the dress code. It’s not as strict as it once was.”

Even the required graduation attire has changed with times. Girls used to be required to wear a skirt or a dress to graduation, but that changed to being able to wear either male or female attire, to be more equal, according to Aquilio.

When a student violates the dress code, they are generally given different options based on the severity of the offense.

“Most often they [the student] are asked to change or to cover up,” said Aquilio. “The nurse has clothes in her office, if the student has gym clothes they can change into that, they can get clothes from their friends or they can even call home for their parents to bring in clothes.”

This sort of code can be found to be enforcing ideals that are exactly opposite of what is intended, however. According to one of the cofounders of the Everyday Sexism Project, Laura Bates,  “There’s a real culture being built up through some of these dress codes where girls are receiving very clear messages that male behavior, male entitlement to your body in public space is socially acceptable, but you will be punished.”

Some female students feel singled out due to the dress code and many also believe that it is a limitation of creative expression of character.

“I believe you should be able to wear what you want without offending anyone,” Danser said. “It’s self-expression, in a way.”

The dress code continues to teach the importance of appearance to help teach students the positive influence on self-esteem and respect.