Editor, Times-Union: Hello. My name is Dollie Bumgardner. I am in the eighth grade and I attend Lakeview Middle School. I am writing in regards to some very unfair dress code violations at my school. In a rule book that Lakeview Middle School hands out to each student as they are being registered at the beginning of the school year, the rule book states a list of strict rules on Dress Codes. The rule book also states that the parent or guardian of each student who does not respect the Dress Code will be held responsible for letting their child get away with wearing the outfit that they get in trouble for wearing.
“Articles of clothing or jewelry which bear the name of, advertise, or advocates the use of any tobacco or alcohol product or any other drug are not tolerated.” This is one of the rules stated under the Dress Code section in the rule book. Recently, the singer Bob Marely has become popular among the middle school and high-school students of the Warsaw Community Schools. Multiple students in my school, as well as the high-school and Edgewood Middle School, own Bob Marely graphic tee-shirts that show him smoking weed, or a joint, or has the image of a marijuana plant leaf in the background. By wearing these tee-shirts, students are not following the rules that must be followed. I have been noticing that the teachers do not take charge and discipline these students. Because students wear these inappropriate tee-shirts, they are advertising a drug.
“Clothing worn at an inappropriate waist level are not allowed. Students are also required to wear pants at an appropriate waist level.” Not to long ago, a new student arrived to my school. Everyday she wears shirts past the appropriate waist level, and you can see her naval almost everyday. This individual also wears her pants down past the appropriate level in which a student is required to wear their pants. This student wears her pants so low, that one is able to see her undergarments. When this specific peer comes to school, she also wears tops that show an unacceptable amount of cleavage. So far, she has only been verbally warned for showing an excess amount of cleavage. For the past year or so, a new fashion fad has been started among boys within the grades of fourth grade to being senior in high-school. This fad is known as “sagging.” This is where a male wears his pants extremely low, mostly past their gluteous maximus, or their bottom. Thousands of young boys/men wear their pants this way, but in Lakeview Middle School, teachers do not seem to care that their male students do not wear their pants at an appropriate waist level, as required.
“Extreme hair styles or unnatural hair colors that cause disruption to the educational process are unacceptable.” Throughout most of the 2011-2012 school year, a student in my grade has had two unacceptable hair colors such as pink and purple. When she had the pink highlights in her hair, she was warned multiple times that she needed to take the color out of her hair, but she continued to have pink in her hair for about a month or so, and the assistant principal and principal seemed to have given up on asking that she take the color out. Not to long after this, she added purple to her hair, and both principals and some teachers demanded that she does not wear the purple in her hair anymore. She continued to wear the pruple in her hair for about a week and a half.
The teachers and principals at Lakeview Middle School seem to not care about what their own rule book says about how students dress. They single out very few students, but let others go one with disturbing their own and other student’s learning process. Teachers and principals need to be more alert on what is going on with their students, and they need to be more watchful of their students that do violate the school’s dress code.
