By Kailey Franklin, staff writer
This year at Kenosha Unified School District, including Indian Trail High School and Academy, there’s been a change in the dress code policy. In the new policy, leggings and yoga pants have been banned as bottoms. However, leggings can be worn with a tunic, dress or skirt.
Like most changes, this one has been received with much controversy. Many students don’t like the new rule simply because they don’t have anything else to wear. With normal jeans being so expensive, leggings have been a much cheaper, (and just as fashionable) alternative.
Students are also confused as to why they’ve been banned.
The dress code is seen as a way to institute professionalism into students, but considering that students are allowed to wear sweatpants and now ripped jeans, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Another possibility could be that leggings and yoga pants are distracting to other students, primarily male students.
If a student breaks dress code, then they’re usually sent to the Office of Student Management until they’re provided with suitable clothing. The student misses out on whatever is going on in the classroom, and all for the sake of the possibility of another student being distracted by someone’s pants.
If we’re really concerned about distracting students, then let’s ban the bright neon colors seen so often in brands like Nike and Adidas. A student is far more likely to be distracted by a glaring yellow color, than a pair of legs, which would be fully covered, just to add.
Those bright colors can also cause migraines for some people, or intensify them.
Banning certain clothes on the premise of being “distracting” to other students reinforces the idea that the female body is inherently sexual, which is prevalent throughout society.
The policy is in place to stop the over-sexualization of women, but that’s counter-productive. This teaches men to think of women as sexual objects, since that’s what they’re being shown.
Instead of telling women how to dress so as to not be deemed “sexual,” men should be taught to respect women, no matter how they dress.
Being told how to dress may not seem like a big deal to some, but even something as small as that is integral to our identities as people, and it’s definitely an issue when the dress code sends a message like this.