The Westminster Middle School girls’ dress code has long stifled girl’s creativity and individuality. It is as strict as it is unreasonable, and it has recently been changed to be even more so. Basic guidelines of the dress code, rules that have been in place since Westminster was established, have now been changed to make teen girls even more miserable. 

Responding to the unbelievably strict rules about the length of skirts, female students started wearing Natural Life skorts this year. These are shorts that follow the rules of the dress code but have a piece of fabric over them, making them look like your average tennis skirt. Everywhere you turn, it seems as if someone is wearing one. But after a few weeks of students styling, saving up for, and showing off these skorts, Westminster decided they had had enough. Girls are now getting dress code violations for wearing these skirts, despite their being in line with the dress code.

This is not the first time Westminster has done something of this sort. They have also dress-coded girls for jeans with holes below the knees, have lectured girls on their necklines while letting boys unbutton their shirts as far as they want, and have classified shirts as “cropped” simply because they rise above a girl’s pant-line when she raises her arms. These rules are all far exaggerated from their original state in the official dress code, and seem to most people in the Westminster Middle School to be completely unnecessary and irrelevant. 

If this issue were to be remedied, it would not take much effort. Girls only have a few simple requests: girls should not be penalized for any rule which is not mentioned in the dress code, any non-gendered rule must be equally enforced among both genders, and rules deemed unreasonable by the majority of students should be abolished. These are reasonable requests, and if taken seriously they would make Middle School girls feel much more comfortable and understood. 

The girls of Westminster are not asking for much, simply that we get a fair and open dress code, one that would help girls stay focused and feel less stressed. The pros far outweigh the cons of changing or loosening the dress code, so why not?