Editorials

Nix dress code double standard

Hernando Today
Published: September 18, 2010

The issue: Dress code double standard for magnet and gifted students at Challenger K-8. Our opinion: Standardize what all students can wear.

It may not seem like a big deal to some school administrators, but to students, having a dress code for some and not for others is a huge controversy that divides the school into haves and have-nots.

In this case, the haves are the Quest School gifted students who don't have to abide by the dress code that their fellow magnet school counterparts are required to maintain.

This school-in-a-school, separate-and-different philosophy may work on paper, but it doesn't work in reality.

According to one mother, the issue has students so worked up that it's the hottest topic on their Facebook pages.

That means it's a big issue - and one that administrators need to wake up to and fix immediately.

Nobody can justify a double standard - certainly not middle school students.

If one student is called out in class for not adhering to the dress code, and the student in the next seat receives no reprimand for the same infraction, that reinforces the perception that some students - the brainy ones in this case - are somehow better than the magnet school students.

It's like Mom buying your sister a new pair of shoes when she already has a dozen "new" ones, while your left wearing your smelly old sneakers as you carry their packages out to the car.

Cinderella taught children about these types of inequities in life and how unfair they can be.

School officials don't need to be playing the part of the wicked stepmother.

Make the dress code the same for all the students at Challenger or throw it in the trash.

It's a simple fix.