Thursday, August 10, 2017

Only in the South: A Tennessee high school senior follows the dress code---and still gets cited for a violation

In the Northeast, classes don't start until after Labor Day, though student-athletes will get a headstart a week prior, when the fall sports schedule gets underway.

Meanwhile, other states have already started a new school year, like, for example, in Tennessee, where a high school senior is being cited for a dress code violation----even though she followed the rules.

SAY WHAT?

At Dickson County High, senior Tori Taylor has already been pulled from class twice because of a "wrong cut" on her crew-neck t-shirt. Huh? Far as I know, and I've always worn crew-neck t-shirts, there's only one cut, just the way the shirt is designed. In an interview with a local television station, Ms. Taylor said she can't afford to buy new clothes just for inspection's sake. Seems to me that during the first week of classes, DCHS hadn't bothered to update their dress code on their own website, which caught some students' attention.

And, then, there is school principal Joey Holley, on the stump for the school and its dress code, such as it may be. Here's his statement, supplied to Yahoo!:
======================================
“Dickson County High School is proud to build good relationships with students, parents, and our community. We have a great school and we strive every day to keep it that way. The purpose of our dress code is to assure students will dress and groom in a clean, neat, and modest manner in order not to distract or interfere with the educational environment of the school. For the most part, 99 percent of our students have come to school within our dress code guidelines. As a reminder, we have communicated with students, parents, and community our dress code expectations for this school year.”
======================================
So who's in charge of dress code inspections, Mr. Holley? Mr. Magoo? Seriously, though, someone's been in the sun too long to start the season, and over-reacted.

I only had to deal with a dress code at school just once, and that was when I was in a private academy for 2 seasons. Never had a code violation. Someone needs to rethink Dickson County's policies yesterday, that's all I can say.

No comments: