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Dress Code Issue

Junior Maizee Wopsock was dress coded for wearing ‘distracting’ clothing

Story by Gabriella Kellison

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Like any other October day, junior Maizee Wopsock picked out her outfit for school. She chose to wear a corset top and black jeans, expecting anything but another ordinary day to follow. The next day however, a dress code regulation disrupted that narrative.

That morning, Wopsock was pulled out of class and escorted to the office for a dress code violation. She was asked to meet with principal Amy McAnarney and assistant principal Amanda Faunce about her outfit. Upset and embarrassed, she was presented with a warning.

“She said that if it happened again, then I’d be sent home,” Wopsock recalled. “[At] the moment, I just wanted to cry.”

According to Wopsock, she was told by McAnarney that her outfit was sparking complaints from staff.

“She was like ‘we’ve gotten a lot of complaints about the tops that you’re wearing—it’s just too revealing, and staff are reporting you saying it makes them uncomfortable,’” Wopsock recalls.

“I’m wearing what everyone else is wearing”

-Maizee Wopstock

Wopsock says that her peers dress the same way, but she feels targeted for her skin color and body type.

“I’m wearing what everyone else is wearing,” Wopsock said. “I’m not really skinny and I’m not white, I feel like I’m being targeted because I don’t look like those people and it’s more noticeable when I do it because I have curves… They were making me feel ashamed about what I looked like, I can’t do anything about the way that my body is built.”

However, McAnarney felt that policing is in the best interest of the student, and hoped for the warnings to teach students about professionalism.

“There’s a saying that you’re always applying for your next job at your current job,” Mcanarney said. “We just want to make sure students are aware of that because we don’t want them showing up over there for a job interview [in] you know, a sports bra and shorts.”

Despite the disciplinary warning that took place for Wopsock, the dress code in the USD 497 student handbook says to address the situation differently.

“Students and staff are responsible

Maizee reports that the following pieces are similar to what she was wearing on the day she was dress coded at school

for managing their own personal distractions without regulating another student’s clothing/ self-expression,” USD 497 dress code cites. “Students shall not be disciplined or removed from class as a consequence for wearing attire in violation of this policy unless the attire creates a substantial disruption to the educational environment, poses a hazard to the health or safety of the student or others, or factors into a student behavior rule violation.”

Due to the relaxed nature of the school’s dress code, confusion has sparked among students. Some students who have been spoken to about their clothing feel that their incidents have been targeted and discriminatory.

“[I’ve been] treated differently based on how I dress from the staff,” an anonymous student reported, via social media poll.

McAnarney explains the reason behind this enforcement. “We don’t want any student or staff member to feel uncomfortable with a student in their class, [if] whatever they’re wearing is just a little beyond what should be accepted,” McAnarney said.

When asked about dress code concerns, Mcanarney expressed that the administration’s most common concern is girls wearing revealing clothing.

“The biggest concern our teachers report to us is probably girl’s tops that are pretty skimpy, and sometimes that makes some of the teachers uncomfortable,” McAnarney said. Or maybe shorts that are very, very short.”

According the the USD497 Dress Code Policy:

“Students shall not be diciplined or removed from class as a consequence for wearing attire in violation of this policy” And...

“Students and staff are responsible for managing their own personal distractions without regulating another students clothing/ self-expression”

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