Dress Code policy at St.

Anthony Middle School

Christian Alberto Ledesma

Assistant Principal, Roosevelt High School

May 5, 2017
 St. Anthony Middle School (SAMS), located in the Village of St. Anthony, is home to about 430
students and serves grades 6 through 8. During my two week residency at SAMS, some staff reported,
via email and in person, that student dress code is an issue and that there should be further study and
action plans developed. On Wednesday, April 26 2017, Joe Krasselt, Dean of Students, suggested that
the issue should be researched, data gathered, and a possible plan developed and communicated. A
conversation with Dr. Renee Corneille, Principal at SAMS, yielded the belief that the issue may not be
about dress code but more about adult perceptions and behaviors.

St. Anthony Brighton School District Dress Code Policy

Dress code policy in St. Anthony Brighton School District Dress Code Policy, adopted January
5, 2010, states that It is the policy of this school district to encourage students to be dressed
appropriately for school activities and in keeping with community standards. This is a joint responsibility
of the student and the students parent(s) or guardian(s). The policy goes on to list what is appropriate
and not appropriate and repeats the phrase in keeping with the community standards when
discussing items such as Short shorts, skimpy tank tops, tops that expose the midriff as items that are
inappropriate. The detailed Dress Code Policy can be found here:
http://www.stanthony.k12.mn.us/sites/default/files/policies/504%20Student%20Dress_Appearance.pdf
While the policy does not describe the community standard nor define it, the U.S. Supreme

Court, in Roth v. United States, stated that a work is obscene if an average person, applying
contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to
prurient interest." In other words, judges and jurors are to decide whether an average person would find
it offensive. In the case of a school dress code, data needs to be collected to determine what the
average person would believe to be appropriate for school, while securing that the rights of any one
group are not being infringed upon.

The Court on Dress Code

In Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent School District, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that
schools may limit student expression, in the form of a dress code, if there is a legitimate concern that
the expression will be a) disruptive to the learning environment or b) violate the rights of others. In
Wallace vs. Ford, the Court noted that "the very nature of public school education required limitations
on one's personal liberty in order for the learning process to proceed; it allowed prohibitions on
immodest and suggestive clothing. In 2013, in B.H. vs Easton Area School District, the Third Circuit
Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania held in favor of students who challenged a school districts policy
banning I heart boobies bracelets worn by students in support of breast cancer awareness. The court
held that the district had not proved that the bracelets were disruptive.

Data Collection

A review of intervention data showed only one referral during the entire 2016-2017 academic
year regarding dress code. The incident referred to a student wearing a midriff-baring shirt who
repeatedly refused to change. Other adult-reported incidents were anecdotal and could not be
quantified as they were not officially recorded.

What Students Wear at SAMS

Initial, informal hallway observation suggested that students at St. Anthony Middle School wear
a variety of clothing - ranging from jeans to shorts, baseball jerseys to tank tops. From a number of
informal hallway observations, nothing specifically stood out as worrisome. In order to get a sense of
what was being worn at SAMS on any particular date and time, data was collected from four
classrooms over the course of one period of day, for two days, so no students dress data was collected
twice in one period. Data was collected on a day that was described as cold, 37 degrees and raining,
and on a day that was described as warm, 63 degrees and sunny.

Clothing Item Instances on May 1, 2017 Instances on May 4, 2017

Jeans 24 19

Sweats 7 14

Leggings 28 15

Shorts 7 35

Track pants 22 16

Pants (Khaki, dress, capri) 14 2

Dress/skirt 1 3

T-shirt 22 36
Tank tops 0 0

Sport jersey 0 3

Hat 0 0

Hoodie 40 (3 up) 41 (0 up)

Long sleeve shirt 24 14

Button down shirt 0 2

Polo shirt 0 0

Sweater/sweatshirt 7 2

Light Jacket 3 7

Sneakers 101 100

Sandals 3 2

Shoes 1 3

Total Girls 53 49

Total Boys 52 56

Total Students 105 105

The number of shorts worn from the cold day to warm day quintupled and the number of t-shirts
increased by fourteen. For a number of reasons, determinations were not made on the length of shirts
or shorts but not calls were made to the office or the Dean of students regarding clothing or dress code
issues. While there were three students wearing their hoods up over the course of those two days, they
make up only a small percent of students (1.4%) and teachers did not seem to engage in a
conversation around the hood up as an issue. In fact, throughout both days I observed students
wearing their hoods up while having conversations with adult staff; at no time did adult staff request that
students put their hoods down.
Community Surveys
Surveys were given to students, staff, and parents to determine their thinking about the schools
dress code policy. Nineteen parents responded to an online survey, twenty-one teachers responded to
an online survey, and twenty two eighth graders responded to an in-person survey while twenty six
more seventh graders took a quick anonymous poll during a social studies classroom.
63% of parents felt the dress code at SAMS is effective while 21% deemed it ineffective. 15%
said they were unfamiliar with the student dress code. Open ended responses on how to improve the
dress code resulted in responses speaking about needing stricter enforcement, a sexist enforcement of
the code that affects girls disproportionately, and the lack of uniformity in enforcement.
Meanwhile, 43% of teachers felt the dress code was effective while 38% felt the dress code was
ineffective. 19% said they were unfamiliar with the student dress code. The open ended responses
resulted in six out of eight comments citing enforcement issues, one citing a disproportionate number of
girls being affected, and one stating that shorts are too short and there being too many belly shirts.
Teachers, parents, and students were asked specifically about various items a shown below. If a
majority of the group said the item was appropriate, it was coded Y for Yes, it is appropriate for
school or N for No, it is not appropriate for school. Student responses coded Too close to tell were
within 4% of 50%. Dean Joe Krasselt and I highlighted in yellow items where one group standard
differed from the other groups.

MEETS THE COMMUNITY STANDARD? / APPROPRIATE FOR SCHOOL?

Teachers Parents Students

High Heels Y N N

Flip Flops Y Y Y

Jeans with Holes Y N Y

Shirt with Holes N N N

Thin strap top N Y N

Short Shorts N N Too close to tell

Hats N Y Y

Hoods N N Too close to tell

Substances logos N N N

Logo Obscene N N N

Midriff shirt N N N
Informal Discussions About Dress Code

In an effort to determine why there were varying responses to certain clothing items and
whether they are appropriate in school or not, I had conversations with teachers and students to try to
discover the underlying values that led to these determinations. One teacher spoke about being old
school and believing firmly that the way a student dresses represents a certain level of respect.
Another spoke about how the current implementation of the dress code directly affects girls the most,
especially bigger girls and girls of color. Safety did not come up as a consideration in the
conversations, the arguments in favor or against current implementation of the dress code seemed to
focus on the idea that it doesnt fit the standard for a school.
In conversations with students there seemed to be a range of beliefs, from I dont feel
comfortable when other girls show that much skin to I should not have to change because it makes
you uncomfortable. Several girls and two boys I spoke with seemed to bring up the idea that the dress
code disproportionately affected girls more than boys. Safety was also not a consideration in the
conversation. Only one boy, out of ten I spoke with, brought up the idea that the way girls dress was a
distraction.

Student Data
Twenty-two students responded to a survey about dress code; 11 girls, 10 boys, and 1 student
who self-identified as another gender. The overwhelming majority are fine with the dress code the way
it is.

Students who replied that there could be improvements to the dress code or that they didnt like
it were asked what, if any, changes they would make.
Four out of six respondents said they would make changes to allow girls, in particular, to wear more
comfortable wear. The wish to be able to wear a tank top in the summer came up in 50% of the
responses. One more respondent spoke in general terms about wanting to feel comfortable and one
respondent spoke of the discomfort in seeing girls expose too much - both respondents self-identified
as female.
Students were asked whether dress affects academics or behavior at school. Very few students
suggested that the way they dress for school has an affect on their academic success or behavior.
Adult Beliefs About Dress Code

Teachers and parents were asked to rank the effect of dress code on a Likert scale of 1-3; 1
meaning it has no effect and 3 meaning it does have an effect.
Unlike students, the adults at SAMS believe that dress does, to an extent, have an effect on student
success and behavior.

Recent Media Coverage

An online search for public school dress code yielded over a million news articles on the topic.
Of the ten articles on the first page of a Google search, seven of them are specifically about girls and or
transgender students being disproportionately affected by a school dress code. Several of the articles
speak about the sexualization of girls via dress code and a policys perpetuation of rape culture. In one
article regarding the banning of leggings and yoga pants at a middle school, a parent, writing to their
principal, said:
 We are frankly shocked at this antiquated and warped message that is being
sent to the kids. Under no circumstances should girls be told that their clothing is
responsible for boy's bad behaviors. This kind of message lands itself squarely
on a continuum that blames girls and women for assault by men. It also sends
the message to boys that their behaviours are excusable, or understandable
given what the girls are wearing. And if the sight of a girl's leg is too much for
boys at Haven to handle, then your school has a much bigger problem to deal
with.

We really hope that you will consider the impact of these policies and how they
contribute to rape culture. Girls should be able to feel safe and unashamed
about what they wear. And boys need to be corrected and taught when they
harass girls. (Evanston Patch, March 18, 2014)

Analysis

Given the various and diverse constituencies at St. Anthony Middle School and their varied
responses, there seems to be no easily discernible belief that drives opinions about dress code policy.
While there are some commonalities in the majority opinions of the three constituencies, such as flips
flops being appropriate for school but midriff-baring shirts being inappropriate, there is a small minority
present within teacher and student groups that raise questions about whether such policies
disproportionately affect girls and sexualize them. An even smaller minority, one adult and one student,
specifically, raised the question of whether students of color were disproportionately affected. Further
data would need to be collected to determine the number of conversations that are happening about
dress at SAMS and the demographics of the students being spoken to.

Next Steps
Varying degrees of urgency around dress code policy were heard during my residency at St.
Anthony Middle School. Some staff, parents, and students suggested they were happy to hear the
issue was being studied and perhaps leading to action and others didnt think there was a problem with
students but suggested there may be a problem with how adults are enforcing the dress code.
A review of the data being collected with the Dean of Students, Joe Krasselt, led to a
consideration of a pronged test to determine if particular clothing items were appropriate for school. The
U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District laid out a two-
pronged test for student speech: as long as student speech does not 1) materially and substantially
interfere with the school operations, or 2) interfere with the rights of other students or teachers, schools
cannot regulate it.
 In an effort to create a test that would not hinder the rights of specific groups of students,
maintain speech protections, and would be fairly uniform in their enforcement, Mr. Krasselt and I drafted
a three-pronged test:
1) Does this present a safety issue?
2) Is the clothing item offensive in nature (including, but not limited to,
obscene, vulgar, racist, homophobic)?
3) Does the clothing cause a substantial disruption to the educational
process?

Before having any conversation with students about possible dress code violations or making any
behavior referrals regarding dress code policy, these three questions would need to be asked. If any
one question yields an affirmative response, evidence of the infraction would have to be presented in
the communication with the student.
The draft three-pronged test has not been evaluated or assessed by members of the three main
constituencies (teachers, parents, and students). A possible next step would be to create focus groups
to determine if the test makes sense, if it would protect the speech rights of students, be uniformly
applicable, and, not disproportionately affect the rights of any minority groups within the school. In
addition, if this test is being studied, a specific conversation with staff regarding the three-pronged test
and what evidence would create an affirmative response to the questions above would need to occur.

Final Word:
The One-Piece Swimsuit Rule

Ill conclude with a conversation with a female 8th grade student regarding dress code policy,
that continues to resonate a few days later. She suggested that as long as all the body parts that would
be covered by a one-piece bathing suit are covered, there should be no issue. Any issues arising from
limitations that go beyond her one-piece bathing suit rule would require an examination of the adults
particular lens - are they making it an issue because they, the adult, are uncomfortable? Is the reason
for the restriction due to possible reactions by boys, thereby possibly perpetuating a rape culture in
which boys are exempt from their behaviors? Is the restriction a result of the sexualization of the middle
girls and their bodies? As long as the cheeks are covered, it should be OK, stated the student.