Did you know that students in an Austin Independent School District (AISD) high school are not allowed to wear athletic shorts? This is one of many examples of how the dress code is outdated and unfair to students which leads to students being harassed about what they wear to school.

Athletic shorts are a common staple in almost everyone’s daily wear. Both boys and girls wear them and, honestly, it’s quite stupid that we are not allowed to wear them. Also, students have learned to ignore this rule because it’s so pointless and the administration doesn’t even care. Now I’m not saying that all of a sudden they should start enforcing the rules, but AISD should revise the dress code to a more updated version.

Additionally, the people who actually need to get dress coded, don’t. Everytime I walk around campus, it is guaranteed that I will see at least one person in a crop top and short-shorts. If I ask them about it, however, they always reply with, “I’ve never gotten dress coded.” Now I’m not sure if they are lying about this or telling the truth, but I personally believe that they should have been dress coded.

People who are only slightly out of dress code, however, will get dress coded. I saw a girl wearing an open shoulder sleeved shirt get dress coded, even though she was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. The dress code rules need to be rewritten to accommodate for modern wear, such as athletic shorts and hats, and the administration needs to learn to base their dress-coding decisions on how much skin is showing rather than why they are out of dress code.

Don’t get me wrong, as much as I love how they aren’t as harsh about the dress code at Bowie, rather than other schools, something has to be changed. We come to school to learn, not to see people dressed scandalously. Students at Bowie need to start taking the initiative of dressing appropriately and to not complain if they get dress coded.

As for the people who are supposed to be dress coding, they need to understand that seeing a slight bit of someone’s shoulder is not as bad as seeing someone else with a crop top. They need to start dress coding the people who are showing way too much skin rather than the people showing even just a slight amount. Also, if a student is slightly out of dress code, they don’t need to make it a big ordeal; they just simply need to have the student cover it up somehow rather than making them go down to the office and call their parents to get a new set of clothes brought to them. Now, I understand how this might be necessary, such as if a student shows up to school wearing nothing but a swimsuit, but it still does not need to be such a big ordeal.

To sum it up, the dress code rules need to be updated to allow students to wear comfortable, everyday wear. The people who have been tasked to dress code students needs to change the way that they dress code so students wearing more scandalous clothing get dress coded rather than others who are slightly out of dress code.