Hi everybody! My name is Nicole Carone, born and raised on Long Island, NY. Currently, I am an undergrad at the University of Delaware, studying Animal and Food Sciences with minors in Biological Sciences and Educational Studies. I will be graduating this year and hopefully enrolling in the university's Agricultural Education program for my master's degree. School dress codes have always been something I am passionate about. Growing up I went to two different public school districts and one year of catholic school.
I had never faced any problems with my school's dress code until I was in 8th grade. In a new school, Commack Middle School, I was a young girl who still hadn't gotten out of puberty yet. I was a little chubby, had braces, struggled with curly hair, but had a bigger chest than average. I was very self conscious about my body and how I looked in clothes. One day I walking to homeroom and got stopped by a teacher. She told me my top was violating the dress code. I was wearing a long tube top with a thick sugar lips, non-see through, tank top, whose straps also satisfied the three finger rule. Neither me nor my mom saw any problems with my outfit. When I asked them why my shirts were inappropriate the response was shocking. "Because someone might come up to you, pull down your tube-top, and your tank top might be see through" I must say, if you think someone in middle school is coming up to me and pulling down my shirt I think you have a bigger problem on your hands besides me. They shoved safety pins in my shirt, and sent me on my way, leaving holes in my tank top. My mom was willing to let my school go on this ridiculous code that was in fact not written in the dress code rules, only because she didn't have to come down to the school.
As if you thought it couldn't get more ridiculous then that wait until you hear my next encounter with the dress code police. In my tenth grade year at now Commack High School it was a really warm day out. I was wearing shorts and a flowy top. As I was walking to lunch a teacher approached me and told me my shirt was violating dress code. By now I had lost the weight, got the braces off, managed my hair and learned how to look nice and not slutty in with my larger chest. I couldn't believe I was living through this hell again. When I asked them why my shirt was violating dress code the response was just as idiotic.
"Your shirt is too flowy and if someone pumps into you your shirt might move and show your midriff"
My mom's response when she had to bring me a new shirt, "You have got to be (insert if you know the word) kidding me." She was just worried the new shirt she brought me might violate some unheard of dress code. Not only did they make me change but they emailed all my teachers for the remainder of the day what shirt I was now wearing so they knew I couldn't change back into my original clothes. Thank you school system for making me feel embarrassed and uncomfortable in front of my teachers and when all my friends asked "weren't you wearing a different shirt this morning?"
My catholic school had mandatory uniforms for both boys and girls. While I have no problems with Catholic schools implementing dress code rules because it is a religious environment, I do have a problem with the choice of clothing. The boys and girls uniforms were very similar but also very sexist. Everybody got an option each day to wear a white-button up collar shirt with short sleeves or long sleeves. Everybody was required to have all buttons buttoned up your top button on the collar. These buttons were made of such cheap quality they required constant attention so you wouldn't get detention for having a button un-button itself, and yes this did happen to me. In the winter we were required to wear grey blazers that gave limited mobility to our arms. The boys and the girls wore the exact same shoes, and these ugly black shoes came with a warning label for blisters. Here is where the sexist part comes to play. The boys were only allowed to wear black pants with a belt and the shirt tucked in. The girls were required to wear a black skirt (reaching right above the knee), neutral stockings and the shirt tucked in. I found myself standing outside my house waiting for the bus in a skirt with snow around the ground and the temperature in the 10's. Why was it okay for me to wear the same shirt, blazer, and shoes as the boys but I can't wear black pants when its mid-winter? Just because I am a girl means I can't enjoy the comfort of wearing pants in the cold? And this was one of the reasons why I left this school.