Wake Schools to Mull Progressive Dress Code Language

Gender-specific language to be scrubbed from new policy

By Tristan Dufresne 2/3/19 8:16AM

CARY — Students attending Wake County public schools may soon find their daily wardrobe options expanded and less gender-specific if the Wake County Board of Education approves changes to the Student Code of Conduct as presented by the system's policy committee at a meeting held Tuesday, January 29.

The policy committee will also review key punitive provisions in the Student Code and consider reducing penalties for lower-level offenses such as insubordination or plagiarism by introducing "restorative discipline," a holistic approach to "addressing student behavior that fosters belonging over exclusion, social engagement over control, and meaningful accountability over punishment," according to the Institute for Restorative Justice and Restorative Dialogue.

The institute gives examples of school usage that includes taking turns in circles to build community or address harms, holding conferences, fostering dialogue and allowing students to problem-solve their own issues in school and with others.

Another potential change under consideration could limit the practice of in-school suspension, asking principals to first attempt "non-disciplinary interventions."

If the suggestions discussed Tuesday with regard to students' dress code ultimately win approval, Wake students will be required to wear "a shirt with pants or skirt, or the equivalent (for example dresses, leggings, or shorts and shoes)."

Both the tops and bottoms of a given outfit must have "fabric on the front and sides....and must not be transparent." All clothing will also be expected to cover undergarments, but the proposed new rules would permit strapless or spaghetti strap shirts, so-called short shorts and tops exposing a bare midriff.

Some specific fashion choices will remain verboten, such as clothes with words or illustrations referencing drugs or alcohol, or using profane language; and spiked jewelry.

"We're not going to allow students to dress in a way that would not be safe for school," said Kathryn Chontos, interim assistant superintendent for the school system's student services. "We're not going to allow just anything."

Any article of clothing displaying bigoted or hateful speech will also remain on the list of banned items. Although this specific prohibition is not part of the dress code proper, but is listed as part of the broader harassment and bullying provisions of the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) Student Code of Conduct.

Hate speech remains a nebulous category as cultural attitudes shift over time. In August of 2017 the Orange County school system changed its own policies to disallow clothes bearing Confederate iconography. Wake County, however, has yet to take the same steps.

WCPSS' current dress code policy, implemented in 2002, explicitly forbids 11 specific categories of clothing. Challenges arose to the current rule book's across-the-board ban on head coverings and its prohibition of "excessively short, tight or revealing clothes."

Wake school principals are currently granted a fair amount autonomy in dress code enforcement, such as having medical conditions that make compliance difficult. They are allowed to make exceptions for students in unique circumstances, and they are also free to ban new problematic clothing at their schools, such as a type of item that causes distractions. However, the board is still allowed to challenge such a ban.

School board members have asked administrative officials to base revisions on the student code developed in the Portland, Oregon, school system, which uses gender-neutral language in its prohibitive descriptions. A similar policy was recently adopted in Seattle, and Washington, D.C., public schools have publicly broached the topic by allowing their own dress code to be studied by education scholars.

"The classic implementation of the dress code does unfairly target women," said School Board Chairman Jim Martin at the meeting.

Torrie Edwards, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill currently working on a dissertation about dress code policy, anticipates much of the resistance to this change to come from "an older generation that grew up when clothing expectations were different."

"Students should be free from the expectation that they are responsible for other people's behavior," Edwards believes, such as in cases of so-called distracting clothing.

Different views about the purpose of schools sway people's opinions about dress code: "People who resist this often see school as creating people who can survive in a professional environment," she said, "Whereas I look at schools and see value in personal expression and personal liberty."