The dress code at Watauga High School hasn’t been revised for over 6 years now, and students are starting to wonder whether it needs to be updated for more recent times. Gary Childers, the Watauga Board of Education Chairman, joins the conversation and offers some of the history of the dress code.
“Most students will do the right thing all the time; we have a great group of young people...but there are some who will push the limits of what they will wear that might be too inappropriate for a school setting,” Dr. Childers said. “You do have to have some kind of dress code for those who are not within the accepted ‘norms’ of appearance. You have grounds to stand on to say you can’t do that or dress that way in public school”.
Many students at Watauga High School have strong opinions on the dress code, like Junior Bella Espinosa. Espinosa doesn’t hide her dislike for the dress code. On the very first day of school, a teacher told her to “cover up” when she arrived on campus in the car line.
“I’ve only ever seen other girls get dress coded,” Espinosa says. “I was wearing a tank top under an unzipped hoodie and got told to cover my stomach up as I was getting out of the car. I hadn’t even taken two steps out of the car.”
Sophomore Amber Hamby openly voices her disapproval of the dress code. She feels the dress code does more harm than good for female students.
“If I am wearing something that’s slightly cropped, I’m normally focused on hiding my stomach instead of learning,” Hamby said.
Some students haven’t been impacted by the dress code at all personally, but feel that it is too strict still, like Sophomore Riley Huddleston.
“I think it should be someone’s choice to wear what they want to wear as long as it’s not hurting someone,” Huddleston said. “It’s too strict and shouldn’t be forced on people.”
While some are outspoken about their opposition, Senior Ida Dishman is an avid supporter of the dress code. She hasn’t been dress-coded in her 4 years at WHS, but has seen other older girls being dress-coded for wearing tube tops and crop tops. Ida is not a supporter, however, of how they enforce the dress code.
“They need to make sure and enforce it on everyone,” she said. “I know they can't catch everyone but they need to focus on the major ones like super short shorts or dresses and shirts that don't cover enough.”
According to Dr. Gary Childers, the dress code has not always been as it is now. In fact, in 1973, Watauga County didn’t have a county-wide policy regarding dress code. It was often left up to the individual schools, and therefore the opinions of the people in those schools. By the 80’s, there was a more county-wide policy, addressing things such as hats and the shortness of dresses. There was a major revision of the dress code around 2000.
“There was a feeling at the time, by the Board of Education and by faculty and community members, that [the dress code] was not being consistent with everyone,” Childers says. “The Board of Education, I think it was in 2000, did a big revision of the dress code and made it more restrictive.”
The following year, in 2001, Dr. Childers became the principal at the high school. This was the first year that the new restrictive dress code was being implemented. There was a massive amount of student backlash.
“That dress code was very restrictive. It had a number of things the students did not like, like having to do with determining the length of ladies’ skirts,” Childers says. “And then for the guys, well for everybody, no hats.”
Dr. Childers goes on to say that the early 2000’s policy prohibited undergarment straps from showing, off-the-shoulder dresses or shirts, and offensive language on clothing. There were also parts addressing displaying the confederate flag or sexual innuendos.
“There were people who wore clothing that were anti- certain societal things,” Childers said. “When I came over to the high school in 2001, we were trying to enforce this dress code. Sometimes, it was hard to enumerate exactly where the line was that we should draw.”
After many revisions throughout the past couple of decades (2002, 2004, 2007, and 2015), the dress code made it to what it has been for the past 6 years. Some are wondering if the dress code needs to be revised again.
“With my understanding, overall, our current dress code seems to be working pretty well,” Childers said. “That is with the understanding that there is always going to be a few exceptions and a few people not happy.”
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