As with any fashion fad, yoga pants have exploded into the fashion scene over the past few years. While their presence in schools has generally been acceptable since gaining popularity among teenage girls, recent issues have arisen in regard to the tight-fitting leggings. In March, a student at Battlefield High School in Prince William County was told that the yoga pants she was wearing violated the school’s dress code. Students throughout the school reacted accordingly—some wore yoga pants to school in protest and others created a petition to promote the wearing of yoga pants. According to reports, one of the Battlefield students involved feels that, “It’s not [the school’s] choice to tell us what we should wear. It’s on us. It’s our way of expressing ourselves, and they shouldn’t tell us what we should wear.” When I read this quote, my reaction was almost immediate; I was taken aback by a mixture of outrage and disbelief of the sheer ignorance in this statement. To say that it’s not the school’s choice to tell students what they are not allowed to wear during school is just wrong. This student’s response does, however, bring up a question that should be considered by everyone who is a part of a school community: How much power should the school have in regard to what students can and cannot wear to school? School officials seek to maintain a standard that is appropriate for a learning environment and in maintaining this standard, dress codes have been implemented. As a student, I still feel that we do have a right to express ourselves in school. However, as with any right, the right to wear what we want has to be exercised within reason. The school has just as much of a right to set up guidelines for the standard it wishes to uphold.
2011-06-09