Stroudsburg High School - Dress Code Controversy

Dress Code Controversy

In the spring of 2008 the school district discovered that the current dress code which had formerly only banned the wearing of ripped or sagged jeans on boys, and the wearing of revealing clothes on girls, was being flagrantly violated. In response to this, it was proposed that there be a standardized dress policy consisting of Kaki or black pants and skirts and polos in either black, white, or Maroon. This policy was immensely unpopular among parents, teachers, and students alike and sparked an online protest group apply named Stroudsburg Students Against The Dress Code. This group produced little real protest, besides making limited appearances at school district meetings and convincing students to wear black arm bands for a short period of time, the group was unsuccessful, and the policy went into effect on August 30, 2008. Initially, students questioned whether or not this new dress code was an infringement on their right to free speech. In large part, the dress code was reported to have increased problems rather than solving them because of its inability to define what was considered appropriate, and its ambiguous enforcement. In the spring of 2009, the administration released findings that showed the dress code had caused disciplinary referrals to decrease by 1000, but this recent statistic has been thrown into question by many staff members as well as students due to the fact that it did not include any of the violations for dress code. The figures from the past years, however, did include dress code violations, and there were MANY more violations in 2009.