A boy listens to his iPod during the minute of silence, tugging at one of the many holes in his jeans and shivering at the cold draft because of the lack of sleeves on his tank top. When the administrator’s voice on the overhead speaker returns, he’s serious.

No headphones… No tank tops… No holes in jeans…

The boy sinks in his seat.

Dress code.

Apparently it has not been enforced thoroughly like administrators preferred these past few weeks. Administration instructed all teachers to enforce students to take out headphones, pull up all saggy pants, and force them to change their shirts if any students showed any inappropriate parts.

The boy slowly attempts to slide away from his teacher’s vision.

But he’s too late – the teacher’s gaze stops on him. Oh no. With the teacher instructing him to stand up, he takes up his headphones, requests for him to buy a belt, and sends him to the locker room to change into his gym shirt.

This routine repeats the next day…And the next.

But by the end of the week, it’s like the announcement did not even happen. The boy is back to wearing his usual clothes and the teachers are not scolding him for his wrongdoings.

This is the problem with the school: We say things need to happen, but we never follow through. We try for a couple of days to improve our school, but then we get tired and the problem appears as too much work.

The dress code policy should make an easy first step for our administrators. When administrators say something, they should follow through with it and not let their duties slip from their minds. This lets students get away with things they most likely should not be able to get away with, and creates problems such as seeing inappropriate clothing that makes others feel uncomfortable, or narcotics being hidden in beanies and hats and creating a dangerous environment.

What is the code of conduct for beanies anyways? The powerpoint  in the beginning of the year stated that no one can wear them, but students are seen wearing them in the hallways without caution or discipline from teachers, so are they really against the school rules?

The students, as well, need to stop abusing their privileges of this lack of enforcement. The main reason for the dress code is to stop students from making the school environment into a riot and rather into a safe and appropriate environment.

The dress code policy is in the Code of Conduct for a reason, and if teachers and administrators do not follow through with enforcing it by stopping students, then what is the point of forcing it anyways?