In 25 years, as students have changed, so has the dress code

 Over the past 25 years at RCMS, as society has changed, the dress code has changed with it by being less specific and more gender neutral.

The dress code states that “students should not wear anything that displays vulgar, discriminatory or obscene language,” which prevents students from feeling unwelcome or unsafe in the school environment. That has always been the case for the RCMS dress code since the school opened in 1998. The dress code has little changes to it every year but one thing that doesn’t change is stopping students from making others feel uncomfortable with their choice of clothing.

“If students wear things that make others uncomfortable then many students wouldn’t even want to be around the school environment, so it’s good for the school to have these rules,” said Bryant Davies, an eighth-grader on the Yellowjackets team.

The dress code has always been there for students to follow and over time it has changed with the fashion of the students. Since the school opened in the late 90s and early 2000s the fashion of students have changed, and it has been hard for students to keep up with the latest trends of their time but still follow the dress code, which is why the school makes a few changes to the dress code every few years.

“Students dress differently every year because of certain fashion trends, so every year there is something different,” said RCMS Principal Gordon Stokes.

The dress code was also once specific about what female and male students wore to school, and it was more strict on the female students side. Recently the school dress code has opened more to all students. It has also been made to be more understanding of students’ religious clothing or head wear.

“One thing that has been changed is the allowance for more cultural headwear,” said Mr. Stokes.

The dress code is mostly the same for many middle schools in the county because of the FCPS SR&R, which applies to all schools in the county. Although it is supposed to follow the SR&R, it is also different from some of the other middle schools in the county.

This has always been  the case and students have always liked it. Most conversations don’t normally come up about how similar the dress code is to the SR&R, so people don’t know the differences, but the fact is, there  isn’t any.

“It’s good that the school doesn’t have many differences because it can’t be the same everywhere,” said Bryant. “I mean we have different locations with different factors that should influence the dress code.”

Administrators of the school don’t seem to think the dress code will change very much in the next couple of years, but with new fashion that the students are influenced by, it could be less strict or more strict according to how students choose to dress.

“The dress code is more behind in the fashion trends and will the dress code change because of that, possibly, but I doubt it will just be less strict,” said Mr. Stokes. “So students can wear almost anything they want to.”