Is Wake County's student dress code sexist? Schools may go with gender-neutral rules.

Female Wake County students may be able to worry less about whether their shorts are too short or their shoulder straps are too thin to pass muster at school.

The Wake County school system is looking at emulating the student dress code used in Portland, Ore., which has drawn praise from some women's groups for being less biased against girls. If the Portland dress code is adopted, Wake students would get more freedom in choosing what they wear to school, such as bare-midriff tops, tank tops, strapless shirts, spaghetti straps and shorts that some might say are too short.

“Parents wanted to let me know their child was found to be in violation of the dress code and to let me know the emotional impact on the student," school board member Lindsay Mahaffey said in an interview.

"They looked at the district policy, and they felt it was a little biased toward females vs. males in the way it was addressing different issues. So I started looking for gender-neutral dress codes."

Mahaffey brought Portland's dress code to Tuesday's school board policy committee meeting. The committee asked school administrators to review Portland's policy to see whether it should replace Wake's current dress code rules.

School administrators will report back by June on Portland's dress code. If adopted, it could go into effect for North Carolina's largest school district for the 2018-19 school year.

The potential change is drawing approval from at least some Wake parents and students.

"You paid for your clothes," said Saije Gordon, 15, a sophomore at Broughton High School in Raleigh. "As long as you’re not naked or anything or really doing way too much, I think you should be able to wear predominantly what you want. Just don’t go overboard."

Jakari Freeman, 16, a Broughton sophomore, said Wake should be more lenient on the dress code.

"They don’t speak to everybody about what they wear," Freeman said. "They won’t address some people. They’ll let some people slide, and that’s not really fair, so they should reconsider the dress code."

But any changes could also draw opposition from people who think the revisions go too far.

The Wake County Republican Party tweeted that the dress code discussion "seems like a good point of discussion for the 2018 election." All nine Wake school board seats will be on the November ballot.

"School board filing opens June 11... lots of left wing wackiness happening in Wake County right now..." the Wake GOP tweeted.

Wake changed the Code of Student Conduct in 2002 to include 11 examples of items that are considered inappropriate, including exposed undergarments, sagging pants, excessively short or tight garments, bare-midriff tops, strapless shirts and attire that exposes cleavage.

But over the past 16 years, there's been debate about how the dress code is enforced, especially because many of the items seem to apply more to female students than male students.

“What does excessively short or tight mean?" said school board vice chairman Jim Martin, chairman of the policy committee. "What does showing cleavage mean?

"Let’s be honest. There are some women who almost have to have a turtleneck not to show cleavage and others who can have very low necklines. Where is the consistency?”

Mahaffey said the rules are so subjective that what's acceptable one day could be deemed inappropriate the following day.

Violating the dress code can lead to an out-of-school suspension, although school officials say that happened only three times last school year. School officials said they were unable to provide information on how many students were marked as violating the dress code and received in-school punishments instead.

“The kids that are getting dress-coded, some of them are really impacted by it," Mahaffey said. "They get anxious. They get nervous. They go shopping to buy appropriate-length shorts or something, and there's nothing available.”

Gordon, the Broughton student, said she has been dinged for what were considered to be excessively short shorts.

"They’re really not that short, and then they say it’s a distraction to boys, which it shouldn’t be, because boys should be focused regardless," she said.

Portland's student dress code was much like Wake County's when it was changed in 2016 following complaints from female students. A district advisory committee said determining what clothing is "distracting," "sexually suggestive" or "inappropriate" is very difficult to enforce equitably and leads to allegations of sexism and feelings of shame among some female students.

"Students should have the most choice possible in how they dress for school," Portland's advisory panel said in its report recommending the new dress code.

Portland's students are required to wear tops and bottoms with fabric on the front and sides. Clothing must cover breasts and other private parts and be opaque. Clothing must cover undergarments, but the tops of waistbands and bra straps are excluded.

Some things are specifically banned in Portland, such as clothing that depicts use of alcohol, tobacco and controlled substances; pornography; hate speech; or poses a threat to the health and safety of other students or staff.

Some Wake school board members said they liked how Portland's code is focused on what students are expected to wear, while Wake's is about what's not permitted.

Word that Wake might adopt a gender-neutral student dress code was met with praise from some parents of female students, both fathers and mothers.

"As a parent with twin girls and as a former WCPSS teacher and principal responsible for interpreting and enforcing the dress code policy, I fully support this idea," tweeted Democratic Wake County Commissioner Greg Ford.

But Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the N.C. Republican Party, issued multiple tweets Wednesday calling Wake County Democrats "stupid" and saying they "have lost their damn minds." The school board is led by a Democratic majority.

"As a father with two boys, one teenager in the @WCPSS I can tell these stupid @wakedems like jmartin4@wcpss we sure as hell all know what 'excessively short or tight mean and what showing cleavage means,'" Woodhouse tweeted.

After a person replied that Woodhouse's tweets were "disgusting," the Wake school system urged people to remember that students are watching so they should avoid name-calling and instead model appropriate behavior.

"But let’s get rid of the dress code and all societal norms," Woodhouse responded.

This story was originally published April 25, 2018 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Is Wake County's student dress code sexist? Schools may go with gender-neutral rules.."